
Class Jl^_;/J: 
Book.^^.il^_. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



9. M^' 

STUDENT'S HISTORY 

OF 

AMEEICAN LITERATURE 



BY 



WILLIAM EDWARD SIMONDS PhJ), 

Professor of English Literature in Knox College, 

Author of "^ Studenfs History of 

English Literature " 




BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



<? 



COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY WILLIAM EDWARD SIMONDS 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



SEP ?jt909 

L rn^ 



PREFACE 

In the preparation of this book, the author has fol- 
lowed in the main the principles embodied in A Stu- 
dent's History of English Literature, published in 
1902 ; less reference has been made, however, to the 
historical setting — it being assumed that the student 
is well acquainted with the history of his own country. 

The author has tried to present the story with di- 
rectness, omitting what seemed unessential or of minor 
importance, avoiding the technical both in criticism 
and in vocabulA-y, and attempting in the arrangement 
of material to find a plan as simple and clear as pos- 
sible. Believing most emphatically that a course in the 
history of our literature should in no degree supplant 
the study of its masterpieces, but contribute rather to 
the enjoyment and correct appreciation of them, he has 
sought not only to interest his readers in the personal 
narratives of men and women who have created our 
literature, — and are still creating it, — but, through 
the suggestions for study or reading, also to encourage 
actual acquaintance with the works that compose that 
literature. 

Many of the reference books mentioned in the text 
will be of more value to the teacher than to the pupil ; 
and the experienced instructor will make more fre- 
quent use of illustration than of critical comment. It 
would be gratifying if our principal authors were re- 
presented in every school library, and if one such au- 
thor could be read entire by each student in the course. 
At all events, the library habit should be cultivated and 



iv PREFACE 

the search for illustrative selections encouraged. Sted- 
man and Hutchinson's Library of American Litera- 
ture^ Stedman's An American Anthology^ and similar 
collections are of the greatest value. Whitcomb's 
Chronological Outlines of American Literature can 
be used to excellent advantage in noting the produc- 
tions of specific years. The current volume of WTio 's 
Who in America is our one reliable source of infor- 
mation concerning living writers. Especially to be com- 
mended are The Chief American Poets and American 
Songs and Lyrics^ both edited by Curtis Hidden Page ; 
the former book, which contains in a single volume 
the great body of our best American verse, ought to 
be in continuous use throughout the course. 

Finally, let no teacher of American literature con-" 
sider it a part of his professional duty to depreciate or 
deprecate the work of our American writers. It re- 
presents a substantial and respectable achievement ; it 
may well inspire a reasonable patriotic pride in the 
minds of our youth ; it is, at the present time, as full 
of promise for literary art in the future as is the na- 
tional literature of any land. 



CONTENTS 

I. Early Colonial Literature. 1607-1700 

I. The English in Virginia 1 

II. Pilgrims and Puritans in New England 11 

III. The New England Clergy 20 

IV. Puritan Poetry in New England 32 

II. The Eighteenth Century 

I. The First Half of the Century 44 

II. Benjamin Franklin : 1706-1790 52 

III. The Second Half of the Century 65 

IV. Poetry of the Revolution 71 

V. The Close of the Century 80 

III. The Beginning of the Nineteenth Century 

I. The New Literature : The Knickerbocker Group . 94 

II. Washington Irving : 1783-1859 104 

III. James Fenimore Cooper : 1789-1851 119 

IV. William Cullen Bryant: 1794-1878 128 

IV. Philosophy and Romance 

I. The Literary Development of New England . . . 149 

II. Ralph Waldo Emerson : 1803-1882 157 

III. Henry D. Thoreau : 1817-1862 177 

IV. Nathaniel Hawthorne : 1804-1864 183 

V. Edgar Allan Poe : 1809-1849 200 



vi CONTENTS 

V. The New England Poets 

I. Henry Wadsworth Lon^ellow : 1807-1882 . . .217 
II. John Greenleaf Whittier : 1807-1892 234 

III. James Russell Lowell : 1819-1891 253 

IV. Oliver Wendell Holmes : 1809-1894 267 

VI. General Literary Development 

I. The Historians 279 

II. Orators and Statesmen 286 

III. Writers of Pennsylvania and New York .... 290 

IV. Novelists and Humorists 302 

V. Poetry, South and North 310 

VII Recent Years 

I. Scholars and Essayists 326 

II. Poets of this Generation 329 

III. Contemporary Fiction 335 

Index 359 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Chief American Poets Froiitispiece 

Title-Page of John Smith's " True Relation " .... 5 

Title-Page of Anne Bradstreet's Book 37 

Franklin's " Poor Richard's Almanac " 59 

New York City in 1801 96 

Yale College in 1807 121 

An Early View of Williams College 131 

The Central Part of Concord in 1837 163 

A View in Salem about 1840 185 

The University of Virginia about 1830 203 

BowDOiN College in 1820 219 

Whittier's Birthplace, East Haverhill, Mass 235 

Harvard College about 1840 255 

Boston Common about 1860 275 

Dartmouth College in 1804 287 



The view of Whittier's birthplace is redrawn from a recent photograph. The 
other views are from contemporary engravings. 



A STUDENT'S HISTORY OF 
AMERICAN LITERATURE 



CHAPTER I 
EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE. 1607-1700 

I. The English in Virginia. 
II, Pilgrims and Puritans in New England. 

III. The New England Clergy. 

IV. Puritan Poetry in New^ England. 

I. THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA: CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, 
WILLIAM STRACHEY, GEORGE SANDYS. 

The story of a nation's literature ordinarily has its 
beginning far back in the remoter history of that na- 
tion, obscured by the uncertainties of an age of which 
no trustworthy records have been preserved. The ear- 
liest writings of a people are usually the first efforts at 
literary production of a race in its childhood ; and as 
these compositions develop they record the intellectual 
and artistic growth of the race. The conditions which 
attended the development of literature in America, 
therefore, are peculiar. At the very time when Sir 
Walter Raleigh — a type of the great and splendid 
men of action who made such glorious history for Eng- 
land in the days of Elizabeth — was organizing the 
first futile efforts to colonize the new world, English 
Literature, which is the joint possession of the whole 
English-speaking race, was rapidly developing. Sir 



2 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

Philip Sidney had written his Arcadia, first of the 
great prose romances, and enriched English poetry 
with his sonnets ; Edmund Spenser had composed The 
ShepheixVs Calendar ; Christopher Marlowe had estab- 
lished the drama upon heroic lines; and Shakespeare 
had just entered on the first flights of his fancy. When, 
in 1606, King James granted to a company of Lon- 
don merchants the first charter of Virginia, Sidney 
and Spenser and Marlowe were dead, Shakespeare had 
produced some of his greatest plays, the name of Ben 
Jonson, along with other notable names, had been 
added to the list of our great dramatists, and the 
philosopher, Francis Bacon, had published the first of 
his essays. These are the familiar names which repre- 
sent the climax of literary achievement in the Eliza- 
bethan age; and this brilliant epoch had reached its 
full height when the first permanent English settle- 
ment in America was made at Jamestown in 1607. 
On New Year's day, the little fleet commanded by 
Captain Newport sailed forth on its venturesome and 
romantic enterprise, the significance of which was not 
altogether unsuspected by those who saw it depart. 
Michael Drayton, one of the most popular poets of his 
day, later poet laureate of the kingdom, sang in quaint, 
prophetic verses a cheery farewell: — 

" You brave heroic minds, 
Worthy your country's name, 

That honor still pursue. 

Go and subdue, 
Whilst loitering hinds 
Lurk here at home with shame. 

" And in regions farre, 
Such heroes bring ye forth 

As those from whom we came ; 

And plant our name 
Under that star 
Not known unto our north. 



JOHN SMITH 3 

"And as there plenty grows 
Of laurel everywhere, 

Apollo's sacred tree, 
You it may see, 
A poet's brows 
To crown, that may sing there." 

This little band of adventurers " in regions farre " 
disembarked from the ships Discovery, Good 
Speed, and Susan Constant upon the site of Virginia 
a town yet to be built, fifty miles inland, on ^**^°^y- 
the shore of a stream as yet unexplored, in the heart 
of a vast green wilderness the home of savage tribes 
who were none too friendly. It was hardly to be ex- 
pected that the ripe seeds of literary culture should be 
found in such a company, or should germinate under 
such conditions in any notable luxuriance. The surpris- 
ing fact, however, is that in this group of gentlemen 
adventurers there was one man of some literary craft, 
who, while leading the most strenuous life of all, effi- 
ciently protecting and heartening his less courageous 
comrades in all manner of perilous experiences, com- 
piled and wrote with much literary skill the picturesque 
chronicles of the settlement. 

Captain John Smith, the mainstay of the Jamestown 
colony in the critical period of its early exist- john Smith, 
ence, was a true soldier of fortune, venturesome, 1580-I63i. 
resolute, self-reliant, resourceful ; withal a man of great 
good sense, and with the grasp on circumstances which 
belongs to the man of power. His life since leaving his 
home on a Lincolnshire farm at sixteen years of age, 
had been replete with romantic adventure. He had been 
a soldier in the French army and had served in that of 
Holland. He had wandered through Italy and Greece 
into the countries of eastern Europe, and had lived for 
a year in Turkey and Tartary. He had been in Russia, 
in Germany, in Spain, and in Africa, and was familiar 



4 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

with the islands of the Mediterranean and those of the 
eastern Atlantic. Smith afterward wrote a narrative of 
his singularly full and adventurous life, not sparing, 
apparently, the embellishment which in his time seems 
to have been reckoned a natural feature of narrative 
art. The honesty of his statements has been doubted, 
perhaps to the point of injustice ; and at the present 
time a reaction is to be seen which presents the writ- 
ings of the sturdy old adventurer in a more favorable 
light. ^ 

It was natural enough that such a daring rover should 
catch the spirit of enthusiasm with which the explora- 
tion and settlement of the New World had inflamed Eng- 
lishmen of his time and type. And it was a recognition 
of his experience and practical sagacity which led to his 
appointment as a member of the Council at the head of 
affairs in the Jamestown colony. 

In so far as the literary accomplishments of Captain 
The True John Smith have any immediate connection 
Relation. with American history, our interest centres 
upon his True Relation of such occurrences and ac- 
cidents of noate as hath haj^ned in Virginia since 
the first planting of that Collony^ which is now resi- 
dent in the South part thereof till the last returne, 
from thence (London, 1608). Smith's writings are 
plain, blunt narratives, which please by their rough 
vigor and the breezy picturesqueness of his rugged, un- 
affected style. Hardly to be accounted literature except 
by way of compliment, the True Relation is not un- 
worthy of its place in our literary record as the first 
English book produced in America. It supplies our 
earliest chronicle of the perils and hardships of our 

^ For a full account of Smith's career and a discussion of the au- 
thenticity of his claims, read John Fiske's Old Virginia and her Neigh- 
hours, vol. i. 



T R V E RE 

lation of fuch occur- 
rences and accidents of noateas 

hath hapned in Virginia fince the firft 
plantingoftharCoUony, which 15 now 
reHdent in the South pare thereof^till 
the Jaflrecurne from 
thence. 
Wrttt en by C apt AweSmiih one ofthefatd Cottony ^ to a 
TvorfliffuitkicndQlhis in England, 




£ O 2^D0 2^ 
Fnmcdfovloh Tapfe^ and are tobeefolde at the Grey; 
hound in Paules Church yard by^.fV. 
1 6 o 8 

TITLE-PAGE OF JOHN SMITH'S "TRUE RELATION" 
(Reduced) 



6 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

American pioneers. The romantic story of Pocahontas 
is found in its pages, briefly recounted by the writer in 
terms which hardly warrant its dismissal as a myth ; 
and many another thrilling incident of that distressing- 
struggle with the wilderness which makes a genuine 
appeal to the reader now, as it undoubtedly did to the 
kinsmen of the colonists in England for whom the book 
was originally prepared. 

Smith was the author of several other narrative and 
other writ- descriptive pamphlets in which he recounted 
ings. ^Yie early history of the colonies at Plym- 

outh and on Massachusetts Bay. Indeed, it was the 
redoubtable Captain who first gave to that part of 
the country the name New England ; and to the little 
harbor on Cape Cod, before the coming of the Puri- 
tans, Smith had already given the name of Plymouth. 
In 1624, he published A General History of Virginia^ 
a compilation edited in England from the reports of 
various writers. 

Another interesting chronicle of this perilous time 
William ^^^ written in the summer of 1610 by a gen- 
strachey, fi. tleman recently arrived at Jamestown after a 
® ^" ^ ^" stormy and eventful voyage. This vivid nar- 
rative, called A true Iteportory of the wrache and 
redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, knight, upon and 
from the Hands of the Bermudas, his coming to Vir- 
ginia, and the estate of that colony, was written by 
William Strachey, of whose personality little is known. 
The tremendous picture of shipwreck and disaster is 
presented in a masterly style. 

"The clouds gathering thick upon us, and the winds 
singing and whistling most unusually, ... a dreadful storm 
and hideous began to blow from out the Northeast, which 
swelling and roaring as it were by fits, some hours with 
more violence than others, at length did beat all light from 



WILLIAM STRACHEY 7 

heaven, which like an hell of darkness, turned black upon 
us. . . . 

" Prayers might well be in the heart and lips, but drowned 
in the outcries of the Officers, — nothing heard that could 
give comfort, nothing seen that might encourage hope. . . . 

" The sea swelled above the Clouds and gave battle unto 
heaven. 

'* Sir George Summers being upon the watch, had an ap- 
parition of a little round light, like a faint star, trembling 
and streaming along with a sparkling blaze, half the height 
from the mainmast, and shooting sometimes from shroud to 
shroud, tempting to settle as it were upon any of the four 
shrouds, and for three or four hours together, or rather 
more, half the night it kept with us, running sometimes along 
the mainyard to the very end, and then returning. . . . 

" It being now Friday, the fourth morning, it wanted 
little but that there had been a general determination to 
have shut up hatches and commending our sinful souls to 
God, committed the ship to the mercy of the sea." 

No wonder that when Strachey's little book, printed 
in London, fell into the hands of William Shakespeare, 
this dramatic recital of the furious storm which drove 
the Virginia fleet on the reefs of " the still vexed Ber- 
moothes '* should have inspired the poet in his descrip- 
tion of the tempest evoked by Prospero on his enchanted 
island.^ 

So other narratives were written and other chroni- 
cles compiled by these industrious Jamestown settlers ; 
but their chronicles and reports were largely official 
documents prepared for the guidance of the company's 
officers in London, and for the general enlightenment 
of Englishmen at home. Nowhere among them do we 
find the ring of that resounding style which makes 
literature of Strachey's prose. 

^ Compare Strachey's narrative with Shakespeare's Tempest, Act I, 
Sc. 1. There can be littje doubt of Shakespeare's debt to this story 
of the wreck. 



8 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

It did not seem likely that thus early in Virginia 
qq„_q history any laurels would be gathered from 
Sandys, Apollo's sacred tree to crown a poet's brow — 

1678— X644 ... 

■ as Drayton had pleasantly predicted in his 
lines of farewell. Yet, after all, among these gentlemen 
adventurers who continued to come from England in 
increasing numbers, there arrived in 1621, as treas- 
urer of the Virginia company, one who was recognized 
as a poet of considerable rank — George Sandys, 
author of an excellent metrical translation of the first 
five books of Ovid. To Sandys also, Drayton, now 
laureate, had imparted a professional benediction, 
exhorting his friend with appreciative words : — 

" Let see what lines Virginia will produce. 
Go on with Ovid. . . . 
Entice the muses thither to repair ; 
Entreat them gently ; train them to that air." 

And amid the exacting duties of his position in a most 
discouraging time, in experiences of privation and dis- 
tress, amid the terrors of Indian uprising and mas- 
sacre, he " went on " with Ovid. After four years of 
strenuous life in the new America, Sandys went home 
to England with his translation of the Metamorphoses 
completed, and in 1626 presented his finished work to 
the king. It was a notable poem, was so accepted by 
contemporaries, and afterward elicited the admiration 
of Dryden and of Pope. Thus came the first expres- 
sion of the poetic art in the New World — " the first 
utterance of the conscious literary spirit, articulated in 
America." ^ 

We record with interest these few literary appear- 
ances in the annals of our early history, but we can in 
no sense claim these writers as representatives of our 
native American literature. Smith, Strachey, and San- 

^ Tyler's History of American Literature, vol. i, p. 54. 



DEVELOPMENT OF VIRGINIA 9 

dys were Englishmen temporarily interested in a great 
scheme of colonization. After brief sojourn in the 
colony, they returned to England. They were not col- 
onists ; they were travelers ; and while their composi- 
tions have a peculiar interest, and are not without 
significance for us, they cannot be accounted American 
works. 

The record of Virginia's early struggles, its diffi- 
culties with the Indians, its depletion by ill- Dgyeiop- 
ness and famine, its losses due to the inca- ment of the 
pacity of leaders and policies ill adapted to ° °^^' 
the conditions of a true colonial life, its reinforcements, 
its acquisition of colonists, its advancement in wealth 
and imj)ortance, — this is familiar history. The re- 
markable fact is the rapidity with which the colony 
developed. In 1619, twelve hundred settlers arrived ; 
along with them were sent one hundred convicts to 
become servants. Boys and girls, picked up in the 
London streets, were shipped to Virginia to be bound 
during their minority to the planters. In the same 
year a Dutch man-of-war landed twenty negroes at 
Jamestown, who were sold as slaves — the first in 
America. The cultivation of tobacco became profit- 
able, the plantations were extended, and new colonists 
were brought over in large numbers. Following the 
execution of Charles I, and the establishment of the 
Puritan Protectorate, hundreds of the exiled Cavaliers 
migrated to Virginia with their families and tradi- 
tions. These new colonists stamped the character of 
the dominion that was to be. The best blood of Eng- 
land was thus infused into the new enterprise, and the 
spirit of the South was determined. In 1650, the popu- 
lation of Virginia was 15,000 ; twenty years later, it 
was 40,000. 

Yet the southern soil did not prove favorable to liter- 



10 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

ary growth. English books were, of course, brought 
Literary ^^*^ *^® colony, and private libraries were to 
Oonditions. be found here and there in the homes of the 
wealthy. There were no free schools in Virginia, and 
but few private schools. The children of the planters 
received instruction under tutors in their own homes, 
or were sent to England for their education. For fear 
of seditious literature, printing-presses were forbidden 
by the king. In 1671, Governor Berkeley declared: — 

" I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and 
I hope we shall not have these hundred years ; for learning 
has brought disobedience into the world, and printing has 
divulged them and libels against the best of governments. 
God keep us from both." ^ 

Of original literary accomplishment, there was little 
or no thought until well on in the eighteenth century. 
Two or three vigorous pamphlets, published in Eng- 
land not long after 1650, are interesting as voicing the 
first decided utterances of a genuine American spirit 
in the southern settlements. John Hammond, a resi- 
dent in the newer colony of Maryland, visiting his old 
"Leah and ^0™® i^ 1656, became homesick for the one 
Rachel." be had left in America. " It is not long since 
I came from thence," he said, " nor do I intend, by 
God's assistance, to be long out of it again. ... It is 
that country in which I desire to spend the remnant of 
my days, in which I covet to make my grave." His little 
work, entitled Leah and Rachel (" the two fruitful sis- 
ters, Virginia and Maryland "), was written with a pur- 
pose to show what boundless opportunity was afforded 
in these two colonies to those who in England had no 
opportunity at all. 

^ For a discussion of social and intellectual conditions in Virginia at 
this period, see G. P. Fisher's The Colonial Era, pp. 51-61, and R. Q. 
Thwaites's The Colonies, ch. v. 



NEW ENGLAND 11 

II. PILGRIMS AND PURITANS IN NEW ENGLAND; HIS- 
TORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE WRITERS: WILLIAM 
BRADFORD, JOHN WINTHROP, FRANCIS HIGGINSON, 
WILLIAM WOOD, THOMAS MORTON. 

In the northern settlements, conditions socially and 
intellectually were very different from those New 
existing in the South. The men who colonized England. 
New England represented a unique type ; their ideals, 
their purpose, were essentially other than those which 
inspired the settlers at Jamestown and the later colo- 
nizers of Virginia. The band of Pilgrims who landed 
from the Mayflower at Plymouth in November, 1620, 
were not bent on mere commercial adventure, lured to 
the shores of the New World by tales of its fabulous 
wealth. They were not in search of gold ; they were 
looking for a permanent home, and had brought their 
wives and children with them. Their ideals were of the 
most serious sort ; their deep religious feeling colored 
all their plans and habits of life. 

The Pilgrims were a congregation of *' Separatists " 
or non-conformists who had already endured The 
hardness for conscience' sake before they had Piieriias. 
ever left the old home. Under the leadership of the 
Eev. John Robinson and Elder William Brewster, they 
had fled to Holland in 1608. For ten years, this com- 
munity of Englishmen had lived peacefully in the 
Dutch city of Leyden, earning their own living and 
enjoying the religious liberty they craved ; but they 
felt themselves aliens in a foreign land, and saw that 
their children were destined to lose their English birth- 
right. After long deliberation, they determined " as 
pilgrims " to seek in the new continent a home where 
they might still possess their cherished freedom of wor- 
ship, while living under English laws and following 
the customs and traditions of their mother-land. 



12 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

This company of men obtained a grant from the 
London Company under the same charter as 
Plymouth that which had been given to the Virginia 
Colony. Colony. They finally set sail from Plymouth, 
in England, September 16, 1620. It was in the early 
winter when the Mayflower sighted the shores of Cape 
Cod. The story of "New England's trials," first told 
in the narrative of Captain John Smith,* is as roman- 
tic as that of the Jamestown Colony and even more 
impressive. 

Of the forty-one adult males who signed the famous 
compact on board the Mayflower, only twelve bore 
the title of " Gentleman." They were a sober-minded, 
sturdy band of true colonizers, familiar with labor and 
inspired with the conviction that God was leading them 
in their difficult way. Although half the colony perished 
in the rigor of that first winter, for which they had been 
wholly unprepared, the spirit of the Pilgrims spoke in 
the remarkable words of their leader, Brewster : — 

" It is not with us as with men whom small things can 
discourage or small discontentments cause to wish themselves 
at home again." ^ 

The companies of settlers who followed the Pilgrims 
Puritan within the next few years were composed of 
SiNew' *^® same sturdy, independent class of thought- 
England, f ul, high-minded men. They were Puritans, — 
for the most part well-to-do, prosperous people; many 
of them had been educated in the universities, and 
brought the reverence for education with them. "If 
God make thee a good Christian and a good scholar, 
thou hast all that thy mother ever asked for thee," said 
a Puritan matron to her son. The colonists who within 

1 A Description of New England (1616) ; New England's Trials 
(1620-22). 

2 Read John Fiske's The Beginnings of New England, p. 82. 



WILLIAM BRADFORD 13 

the next fifty years dotted the New England coast-line 
with their thrifty settlements were idealists. As Pro- 
fessor Tyler puts it, they established " not an agricul- 
tural community, nor a manufacturing community, nor 
a trading community ; it was a thinking community.'* 
Moral earnestness characterized every action. In 1636, 
the General Court of Massachusetts voted to establish 
a college at Newtown ; John Harvard, dying two years 
later, bequeathed his library and half his estate to the 
school, which was then named Harvard College in his 
honor. In 1639, the first printing-press in America was 
set up at Cambridge, as Newtown was then named out 
of compliment to the numerous graduates of the Eng- 
lish university, then settled in this vicinity. The colo- 
nists had their grammar schools which prepared for 
college ; and by 1650 public instruction was compulsory 
in four of the five New England colonies, Rhode Island 
being the exception. 

The earliest literary efforts among the New England 
colonists — like the beginnings in Virginia — were his- 
torical and narrative writings, some in the form of jour- 
nals, a few, more ambitious, representing real attempts 
at formal history. 

William Bradford, for whom the title Father of Ameri- 
can history may well be claimed, was a native ^miam 
of Yorkshire, and at seventeen, a member of Bradford, 
the Eev. John Robinson's famous congrega- 
tion, fled with his brethren into Holland. He was promi- 
nent among: the Pilsfrims at the time of their arrival in 
America, and at thirty-two was elected governor of 
Plymouth. Until his death, he continued to fill this hon- 
orable office, except as he was permitted to break the 
period of his service for intervals at five several times. 
Bradford was a plain, sensible, truthful man, an able 
leader under severe conditions. He felt the immense 



14 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

significance of what was then taking place, and sought 
to provide a record which should preserve a faithful 
picture of the settlement. No sooner had the Mayflower 
sighted land, than Bradford began conjointly with Ed- 
ward Winslow to keep a journal of all occurrences. 
This journal was carefully continued to the end of the 
first year. Ten years after the arrival, Governor Brad- 
ford began his notable History of the PUmoth Planta- 
tion^ on which he labored for twenty years. His purpose, 
as he avowed, was to write " in a plain style, with sin- 
gular regard unto the simple truth in all tnings." His 
story goes back to the persecutions in England and de- 
tails the causes of the flight into Holland ; describes the 
sojourn there, and explains the reasons for the second 
exodus to the shores of the New World. What follows 
consists of a contemporaneous narrative of the experi- 
ences of the colony, set down in simple chronicle with- 
out much regard to proportion or unity ; but the unmis- 
takable touch of his own homely, honest personality and 
the vigor of his blunt, realistic style impart a distinct 
literary flavor to this primitive history of Plymouth, 
which adds to its obvious value as the first detailed re- 
port of the New England settlements. An illustration 
is found in the writer's account of the Pilgrims and 
their perilous situation upon their arrival in the New 
World : — 

" Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe 
to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of 
heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious 
ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries 
thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, 
their proper element. . . . But here I cannot but stay and 
make a pause, and stand half amazed at this poor people's 
present condition ; and so I think will the reader too when 
he well considers the same. Being thus passed the vast ocean 



WILLIAM BRADFORD 15 

and a sea of troubles before, in their preparation, . . . they 
had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or 
refresh their weather-beaten bodies, no houses or much less 
towns to repair to, to seek for succor. It is recorded in scrip- 
ture as a mercy to the apostle and his shipwrecked company, 
that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in re- 
freshing them ; but these savage barbarians when they met 
with them . . . were readier to fill their sides full of arrows 
than otherwise. And for the season, it was winter ; and they 
that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp 
and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous 
to travel to%nown places, much more to search an unknown 
coast. Besides what could they see but a hideous and desolate 
wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men ? And what 
multitudes there might be of them, they knew not. Neither 
could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah, to view 
from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their 
hopes; for which way soever they turned their eyes (save 
upward to the heavens) they could have little solace or con- 
tent in respect of any outward objects. For summer being 
done, all things stared upon them with a weather-beaten face ; 
and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented 
a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them, there 
was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as 
a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts 
of the world. . . . May not and ought not the children of 
these fathers rightly say : ' Our fathers were Englishmen 
which came over this great ocean and were ready to perish in 
this wilderness ; but they cried unto the Lord and he heard 
their voice and looked on their adversity. Let them therefore 
praise the Lord because he is good and his mercies endure 
for ever.' *' 

The manuscript of Bradford's history has itself had 
a rather interesting story. At the death of its author, it 
fell to the possession of his nephew, Edward Morton, 
who made liberal use of it in his own New England's 
Memorial (1669). It then came into the hands of 



16" EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

Rev. Thomas Prince,* who wrote a Chronological His- 
tory of New England (1736). During the occupation 
of Boston by the British troops in 1775-76, the manu- 
script was lost with many other valuable documents 
preserved in Prince's library, which was in the tower of 
the Old South Church. In 1855, this valuable document 
was discovered in the library of the Bishop of London, 
was copied, and published in this country ; and in 1897, 
the original itself was restored to America. It is kept 
in the Massachusetts State Library at the State House 
in Boston. 

Among the company of English Purit^s who, in 
1630, settled on the shore of Massachusetts 

uonn 

winthrop. Bay, the foremost figure was that of John 
5 8-6. \yinthrop, already appointed Governor of 
the colony. His family was well known in his home 
shire of Suffolk, a family of property and position. 
Winthrop himself was a man of noble character, a con- 
scientious Puritan, yet catholic in spirit beyond some 
of his associates, possessing the tastes and accomplish- 
ments of culture. During his voyage to America, he 
had busied himself in the composition of a little treatise 
which was characteristic of this broad-minded man. 
A Model of Christian Charity is the title of his essay ; 
and in it he presents a plea for the exercise of an 
unselfish spirit on the part of all the members of this 
devoted band, now standing on the threshold of an 
experience which could not but be trying in the extreme 
on the nerves and temper of all. " We must be knit 
together in this work as one man ! " was his cry. 

John Winthrop's History of New England is the 
Historv f contemporaneous record preserved in his 
New journal of occurrences in the colony observed 

"^ ^ ' by him, or reported to him. The busy gov- 
ernor made a brave effort to keep up with the march 



JOHN WINTHROP 17 

• 

of events. Notwithstanding the press of official duties, 
which more than filled his days, he persevered with his 
journal, which commences with the beginning of the 
voyage and comes down to a date only some few weeks 
previous to his death, in 1649. There are gaps in the 
chronicle and a significant brevity in the records of par- 
ticular incidents, some of these records passing from 
the trivial to the pathetic with ludicrous conciseness. 

" A cow died at Plymouth, and a goat at Boston, with 
eating Indian corn." The fact is recorded as faithfully 
as a previous item, mentioned with Spartan brevity : 
" My son, H,enry Winthrop, was drowned at Salem." 
In the following passage, we get a curious glimpse into 
the Puritan mind. The pathos of the original note is 
almost lost in the unconscious humor of the historian's 
wise deductions : — 

*'Mr. Hopkins, the governor of Hartford upon Connecti- 
cut, came to Boston, and brought his wife with him (a godly 
young woman, and of special parts), who was fallen into a sad 
infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason, which 
had been growing upon her divers years, by occasion of her 
giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had written 
many books. Her husband, being very loving and tender of 
her, was loath to grieve her ; but he saw his error, when it 
was too late. For if she had attended her household affairs, 
and such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her 
way and calling to meddle in such things as are proper for 
men, whose minds are stronger, etc., she had kept her wits, 
and might have improved them usefully and honorably in the 
place God had set her. 

" He brought her to Boston, and left her with her brother, 
one Mr. Yale, a merchant, to try what means might be had 
here for her. But no help could be had." 

There are more momentous records than these in 
the annals, and Winthrop's history shares with that of 
Bradford in interest and importance. 



18 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

Through these straightforward, plain-spoken men 

we sret our clearest vision of the ruo^sred, haz- 
Slgnllicanoe .° . tp . , . . %* . , 

of the ardous pioneer life, its heroism, its fortitude, 

Chronicles, j^^ romance, its curiously contradictory dis- 
play of self-sacrificing sympathy and fanatical intol- 
erance ; its superstition and narrowness ; its petty trials 
and large tribulations ; its splendid faith, its aggressive 
energy of zeal. It is well for the student of literature, 
as for the student of history, to feel the spirit of these 
early New England histories. Just as the Virginia set- 
tlers developed on the fertile plantations of the South a 
civilization which reflected the aristocratic traditions 
of the Cavaliers, so on the rock-bound coasts of Massa- 
chusetts Bay these northern colonists stamped their 
descendants with the grave, stern, persistent type of 
Puritan character. 

There were not wanting in the colony those who 
Early found delight in studying and describing the 

Descriptive natural wonders of this new land. The im- 
pressive grandeur of the forest, the fertility 
of the virgin soil, nature's luxuriant abundance re- 
deemed from the wilderness, the strange picturesque- 
ness of the savage natives, the wild things of the woods 
— so much that was new and wonderful in their envi- 
ronment — all this made its appeal to the imagination 
of some among these hard-headed, practical pioneers. 
Such an one was Rev. Francis Higginson (1567-1630), 
a gifted and eloquent man, who came from England in 
1629 to serve the community at Salem as its minister. 
It was in June that the voyagers landed, and the glories 
of a New England summer colored the impressions of 
the newly arrived clergyman with a primeval splendor. 
He had written a narrative of his voyage, and now he 
began a description of the country itself. His little 
book of observations is a bright and- genial picture, 



WILLIAM WOOD 19 

poetically framed. Under the title N'ew England' s 
Plantation^ it was published in London in 1630. ''A 
sup of New England's air is better than a whole 
draught of Old England's ale," declares its author. The 
woods, the flowers, the plants, delighted him. " Here 
are also abundance of other sweet herbs," he wrote, 
"delightful to the smell, whose names I know not, 
and plenty of single damask roses, very sweet." Even 
the stern rigidity of the Puritan could bend above 
the beauty of the sweetbriar and gratefully inhale 
its fragrance. The chill breath of the New England 
winter does not blight his enthusiasm. The great 
hearth-fires in the cabins, and the inexhaustible sup- 
ply of wood to feed the flames rejoice his heart. 
" There is good living for those who love good fires ! " 
he exclaims. 

Something of a naturalist was WiUiam Wood, who 
published in 1634 his Neio England's Pros- wmiam 
j}ect^ an interesting description of the coun- "'^oo*- 
try in which he had made his home. A little of a poet, 
also, he enlivened his account by putting some of his 
observations into verse — as, for example : — 
" The beasts be as foUoweth : 

" The kingly Lion and the strong'-armed Bear, 

The large-limbed Mooses, with the tripping Deer; 

Quill-darting Porcupines and Raccoons be 

Castled in the hollow of an aged tree ; 

The skipping Squirrel, Rabbit, purblind Hare, 

Immured in the self-same castle are. 

" Concerning lions I will not say that I ever saw any my- 
self, but some affirm that they have seen a lion at Cape Ann, 
which is not above six leagues from Boston ; some likewise 
being lost in woods have heard such terrible roarings as 
have made them much aghast : which must either be devils or 
lions ; there being no other creatures which use to roar sav- 
ing bears, which have not such a terrible kind of roaring." 



20 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

No record of early New England life can fail to 
take account of the experiences of Thomas 
errymoun . ]y|^j,|.Qjj^ ^ royalist who, in 1626, established 
himself with some thirty boon companions on an 
estate ^ not far from the Plymouth settlement. The 
presence of this lively neighbor proved anything but 
agreeable to the strict and godly residents of Plymouth 
and of Boston, who were scandalized by the goings-on 
at Merrymount. Here were sports and revelings which 
were viewed by the Puritans with consternation, and 
then with righteous indignation. When Morton's little 
company had increased to a considerable number, — 
for various congenial spirits had been added to the 
group, — these stern moralists rose in their wrath, 
hewed down with axe and sword the lofty maypole 
around which their rollicking neighbors had rehearsed 
the dances and revels of Merry England, and banished 
Morton with his followers from the country. Back in 
his native land, he wrote his JVew Unglish Canaan 
(1637), turning the shafts of ridicule upon his vic- 
torious enemies. While the work in itself is of slight 
importance, the incident is a diverting one, and gives 
a humorous glow to the sober-hued picture of this 
sombre Puritan age. 

III. THE NEW ENGLAND CLERGY: THOMAS HOOKER, 
THOMAS SHEPARD, JOHN COTTON, NATHANIEL 
WARD, ROGER WILLIAMS, JOHN ELIOT, THE 
MATHERS. 

Among a people constituted in temper like the Puri- 

Tiieoiopyin *^"^» ^ people with whom religion was life 

NewEng- and whose life even on its temporal side was 

closely identified with religion, it was natural 

that religious ideas should find constant expression in 

^ Now Wollaston Heights. 



THEOLOGY IN NEW ENGLAND 21 

literature. This we have seen to be true in the histori- 
cal narratives of Bradford and Winthrop. The Puritan 
writers are always impressed with the spiritual signifi- 
cance of their conquest in this new Canaan. Even the 
most casual accidents of pioneer experience are inter- 
preted as filled with divine purpose. John Winthrop 
soberly records the fact that in his son's library of a 
thousand volumes, one, which contained the Greek 
Testament, the Psalms, and the Book of Common 
Prayer bound up together, was found injured by mice. 
Every leaf of the Common Prayer was eaten through ; 
not a leaf of the other portions was touched, nor one 
of the other volumes injured. A marvelous providence 
this, clear enough in its indications. So Edward John- 
son, not an educated man, but a farmer and a ship- 
carpenter, who had been active in the founding of 
Woburn, in 1640, wrote his Wonder-Working Provi- 
dence of Zions Saviour in New England (1654). 
" For the Lord Christ intends to achieve greater mat- 
ters by this little handful than the world is aware of." 

The colonists are soldiers under the divine leader ; 
they must not tolerate the existence among them of a 
single disbeliever ; they must take up their arms and 
march manfully on till all opposers of Christ's kingly 
power be abolished. Thus spake Puritanism on the side 
of its austerity and fanaticism. 

There was in New England one class of men who by 
natural aptitude and by training were well 
fitted to be heard from on religious topics. ^ ^^^ ' 
These were the ministers. As the village church, or 
meeting-house, was the centre geographically, morally, 
and socially, of every New England community, so 
the minister was, usually, the dominating force among 
his townspeople, maintaining the high dignity of the 
sacred calling with a manner which commanded a 



22 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

deference amounting to awe. Not only was his authority 
recognized on the purely religious questions of daily 
life, not only was his voice reverently heard as he 
preached for hours from the high pulpit on Sunday, 
but the New England minister was the natural leader 
of his- flock in every field. He gave counsel in town 
affairs, he directed the political policy of his people. 
In cases of disagreement, the minister was usually the 
mediator and the final court of appeal. The greater 
part of the New England ministry were educated men 
of noteworthy gifts. The majority were graduates of 
the English universities ; many of them had been dis- 
tinguished for their eloquence and piety before the re- 
ligious persecution of Charles and his ministers had 
driven them forth to find religious liberty elsewhere. 

Three strong thinkers and eloquent preachers are 
usually mentioned as conspicuous among these early 
colonial ministers : Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, 
and John Cotton. All three were graduates of the same 
college at Cambridge ; all were Puritan preachers in 
England until compelled to flee for their lives because 
of the hostility of Bishop Laud. 

Hooker had escaped into Holland, and in 1633 fol- 
lowed in the track of those who had crossed 
Thomas 

Hooker, the ocean before him. He became the minis- 
1586-1647. |.g^ ^^ Cambridge. Three years later he led 
a colony of one hundred families through the wilder- 
ness into the beautiful Connecticut valley and founded 
the town of Hartford (1636). Here until his death, in 
1647, Hooker wrote and preached and moulded the life 
of his parish. His power in the pulpit is said to have 
been wonderful. Many of his sermons were published ; 
he wrote numerous treatises on theological and spiritual 
themes. It is significant of the impression left by 
Hooker on his contemporaries that an English clergy- 



JOHN COTTON 23 

man affirmed that " to praise the writings of Hooker 
would be to lay paint upon burnished marble, or add 
light unto the sun." 

Rev. Thomas Shepard arrived in America in 1635, 
succeeding Hooker in Cambridge, where he ^^^j^^g 
preached until his death in 1649. Unlike Shepard, 
the stalwart Hooker, whose physical strength ^^°^~*®* 
and bodily energy matched his intellectual stature, 
Shepard was an invalid. He was, however, a profound 
scholar, and a " soul-melting preacher." His writings 
are not voluminous, but they exercised a strong influ- 
ence even after his death. His diction is imaginative 
and forceful, with the rugged force of Puritan vigor. 

" God heweth thee by sermons, sicknesses, losses and 
crosses, sudden death, mercies and miseries, yet nothing 
makes thee better. 

" Death cometh hissing . . . like a fiery dragon with the 
sting of vengeance in the mouth of it. Then shall God surren- 
der up thy forsaken soul into the hands of devils, who being 
thy jailers, must keep thee till the great day of account ; so 
that as thy friends are scrambling for thy goods, and worms 
for thy body, so devils shall scramble for thy soul." 

On the same ship which brought Thomas Hooker to 
America came John Cotton, most noted of j^^j^^ 
these three men. For nearly twenty years, he cotton, 
had served the parish of St. Botolph's in Bos- 
ton in Lincolnshire, and was known far and wide for his 
aggressive spirituality. In 1633, he discovered that he 
was no longer safe in his native land. The principal col- 
ony on Massachusetts Bay had longed for him. In com- 
pliment to him, its members adopted the name of Boston ; 
and John Cotton became the foremost minister in New 
England, — "a most universal scholar, a living system 
of the liberal arts, and a walking library," as his 
grandson, Cotton Mather, described him. John Cotton 



24 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

wrote many theological treatises, and engaged in bitter 
controversies. He was a laborious student. Near him as 
he studied stood a sand-glass which would run four 
hours. This glass, thrice turned, was the measure of his 
day's work. This he called "a scholar's day." His 
writings lack the picturesque imagery of Hooker and 
Shepard. His style is lifeless now, but he carried pro- 
digious weight among his contemporaries and was the 
foremost champion in the theological battles of his 
age. 

Among the more noteworthy publications of these 
The simple scholastic writers was a singular book which 
OoWer. appeared in London in 1647. Its author was 
Nathaniel Ward, a Cambridge graduate and retired 
minister, who lived at what is now the town of Ipswich 
in eastern Massachusetts. His work is quaintly ad- 
dressed under the title of The Simple Cohler of 
Aggawam in America. Upon the title-page, in accord- 
ance with seventeenth-century custom, the author ex- 
plains his purpose at considerable length : as — 

" willing to help mend his native country, lamentably tattered 
both in the upper-leather and sole, with all the honest 
stitches he can take ; and as willing never to be paid for his 
work by old English wonted pay. It is his trade to patch all 
the year long gratis. Therefore I pray gentlemen keep your 
purses. By Theodore de la Guard." 

This picturesque book, full of pungent wit, directs 
its satire at what its author deemed the follies and per- 
versions of his day. The allegory of the Cobbler is not 
maintained much beyond the title-page. Himself a 
refugee from religious persecution, he expresses the 
usual Puritan intolerance of all independent opinion : 

" That state that will give liberty of conscience in matters 
of religion must give liberty of conscience and conversation 



ROGER WILLIAMS 25 

in their moral laws, or else the fiddle will be out of tune, and 
some of the strings crack." 

Nathaniel Ward's Simple Cohler voices with charac- 
teristic fervor the utterance of Puritan bigotry ; but 
there was In the colony one powerful champion of 
religious tolerance who constitutes one of its most at- 
tractive fioures. This was Roofer Williams, an „ 

° . ° Roger 

independent among the independents. Born wmiams, 

in Wales, a university man and a clergy- ^^o^"^^. 
man in the Church of England, he had turned non- 
conformist, and appeared in Plymouth colony in the 
usual way. In 1633, two years after his arrival at 
Plymouth, Williams went to Salem to be the minister 
there ; but his teachings were altogether too radical to 
suit his stern and narrow-minded Puritan brethren. He 
preached a real liberty of thought and worship — even 
for Baptists and Quakers ; taught that it was unright- 
eous to rob the Indian of his land, and to treat captives 
with cruelty ; and maintained that the State's author- 
ity did not extend over the individual conscience or 
opinion. Roger Williams was one of those who proclaim 
the truth so far in advance of the conceptions held by 
those about them, that they seem to be living years 
before their proper time. He was banished from Massa- 
chusetts in 1636 ; and making friends with the Pequot 
Indians, he planted on Narragansett Bay the settlement 
of Providence. Williams revisited England several 
times, and was no Inconspicuous figure there. He knew 
Milton and had the friendship of Cromvell. It was on 
one of these visits that he wrote his first important 
treatise on " Soul Liberty," — The Bloody Tenet of 
Persecution for Cause of Conscience. This was pub- 
lished at London in 1644, the year In which Milton a 
Areopagitica^ a plea for the freedom of the |H'ess, 
appeared. Williams's Bloody Tenet was the beginning 



26 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

of a famous literary battle between himself and that 
belligerent Puritan defender, John Cotton, who in 1647 
published his reply in The Bloody Tenet washed and 
made white in the Blood of the Lamb. The final 
rejoinder came from Roger Williams in The Bloody 
Tenet yet more Bloody^ hy Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to 
wash it white in the Blood of the Lamb. And with this 
brief summary of the encounter between these two 
keen-minded, argument-loving minds, their blows de- 
livered in what Williams called '' sharp Scripture lan- 
guage," we may well afford to take our leave of Puritan 
controversy. 

The attitude of the Englishman toward the native 
inhabitants of America ^ h«is long been marked with 
injustice and dishonor. The precarious situation of the 
colonists surrounded by fierce and savage tribes natu- 
rally produced occasion for the display of savage passions 
on the part of the white man as well as on that of the 
Indian. The horrors of war and massacre that redden 
the early annals of colonial history were, no doubt, 
due in part to the indiscretions and encroachments of 
the superior race. Some one has said of the Puritan 
pionc crs that " first they fell upon their knees, and then 
the} ftli ^:d the aborigines." As we have seen, Roger 
Williams declared boldly for a different policy ; and his 
own methods with the savage peoples were well illus- 
trated in the comparative peace and prosperity of his 
settlement in Rhode Island. Another peacemaker is 
discovered in the gentle personality of John Eliot, the 
John Eiiot, " Apostle to the Indians," who came to Boston 
1604-90. in 1631, and devoted his life to the conversion 
of these children of the forest, whom he regarded as 
descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. He studied their 

1 In his Beginnings of New England, pp. 205-211, John Fiske sets 
'orth this matter in a light more favorable to the English. 



JOHN ELIOT 27 

native tongue, preached to them, converted many, and 
organized his converts in little churches of their own. 
He wrote several books of minor importance ; but he is 
to be remembered as a translator of the entire Bible 
into the Algonquin tongue. It was a tremendous task 
and a remarkable achievement. He published the New 
Testament in 1661 and the Old Testament in 1663. It 
was the first Bible in any language, printed in British 
America. This translation of the Scriptures into the 
vernacular of a people who had no written language, 
done largely by candle-light after days devoted to 
exacting work in his Roxbury parish, is a most remark- 
able monument to " Apostle " Eliot's laborious industry 
and his missionary zeal. 

The scholarly attainments of colonial Puritanism 
have been amply shown by this record of the The Ma- 
New England ministry in the literature of ^'f^iuigifeJ* 
the time. The history of a single family fur- Family, 
nishes our most conspicuous and most curiously inter- 
esting illustration of scholastic eminence and its position 
in popular regard. Through three generations the Ma- 
thers — in grandfather, son, and grandson — appear 
as brilliant intellectual leaders of the Massachusetts 
clergy. 

The first of the " dynasty," Richard Mather, an Ox- 
ford graduate, who arrived in Boston in 1635, jugjiaj^ 
was one of that conscientious Puritan brother- Mather, 
hood that of necessity sought a refuge and a 
field for spiritual conquest in the New World. He 
became the minister at Dorchester. " My brother 
Mather is a mighty man," Thomas Hooker said of 
him. Although he was a prolific writer, it is sufficient 
here to recall the fact that Richard Mather's name 
was the one appended to the preface of the old Bay 
Psalm Booh, 



28 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

Four of Richard Mather's six sons became min- 
isters ; it was, however, through Increase 
Mather, Mather that the chief inheritance of scholarly 
1639-1723. g.j£^g ^^^g transmitted. The father's eloquence 
was more than equaled by the son's ; his Puritan zeal, 
his love of learning, his industry in the production of 
pamphlets and books, brought the name of Increase 
Mather into greater prominence than Richard Mather's 
vigorous quill had won. For fifty-nine years, he served 
as minister of the North Church in Boston. He added 
some ninety titles to the list of colonial publications — 
the majority representing discourses prepared for his 
congregation. Perhaps the only one of his books suf- 
ficiently vitalized by human interest to be noted to-day 
is An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Provi- 
dences (1684), in which the piety, pedantry, and super- 
stition characteristic of the religious scholar in that 
age are curiously mingled. This collection of strange 
visitations and marvelous deliverances was designed 
for the pious entertainment and spiritual comfort of its 
readers. It is one of the most interesting of these early 
American classics ; and, like so many of the works pre- 
viously cited, affords a vivid glimpse into the Puritan 
mind. For sixteen years, Increase Mather served as 
President of Harvard College. 

The clerical succession of this remarkable family 

was continued in the third generation by 

Mather, the most illustrious representative of the 

1663-17M. ,i„^ 

" Under this stone lies Richard Mather 
Who had a son greater than his father, 
And eke a grandson greater than either." 

Thus ran a ^2/asi-epitaph composed after the death of 
Cotton Mather with intent to honor his achievements. 
Nor was this paternal relationship the only source of 



COTTON MATHER 29 

hereditary influence. The famous John Cotton, con- 
temporary of Hooker and Shepard, was his grandfather 
on his mother's side ; it was in memory of that stalwart 
champion that Cotton Mather received his baptismal 
name. All the accumulated piety and learning of his 
distinguished ancestry seemed to reside in this extraor- 
dinary man. His intellectuality was abnormal. He has 
been not inappropriately termed " the literary behe- 
moth of New England." He had read Homer at ten 
years of age, and at eleven was admitted to Harvard 
College. He took his first degree at fifteen ; at seven- 
teen he began to preach, and soon afterward became 
associate with his father in the pastorate of the North 
Church in Boston, a connection which lasted for forty 
years. In his religious life, he became abnormal also ; 
at times he lay for hours on the floor of his study 
in spiritual agony. He fortified himself for the con- 
flict with error by fasts and vigils. His speech was 
full of pious ejaculations. When he saw a tall man he 
prayed, " Lord, give that man high attainments in 
Christianity ; let him fear God above many." And 
each trivial act was the source of some devout medita- 
tion. Unhappily, Cotton Mather is most often remem- 
bered as a leader in the pitiful persecution of the 
unfortunate people accused of witchcraft at Salem in 
the last decade of the century. His Memorable Provi- 
dences Relating to Witchcrafts (1691) and Wonders 
of the Invisible World (1693) contain curious records 
and much interesting matter relative to satanic posses- 
sion ; ideas which were firmly believed at that time, 
not only in New England, but very generally through- 
out Europe also. 

The most remarkable thing about Cotton Mather's 
literary career is the number of his writings ; four 
hundred or more titles are included in the catalogue 



30 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

of his works. Many of these are fantastic treatises, 
His grotesquely named, representing the vagaries 

Industry. of Puritan thought ; many are sermons de- 
livered on special occasions ; three or four are interest- 
ing little books. 

One, familiarly known under the title Essays to do 
Good^^ was cordially praised by Benjamin Franklin, 
who declared to the son of the writer that as a youth 
he had derived great benefit and inspiration from the 
book. But the great work, the magnum opus of Cot- 
ton Mather's prolific industry, was the isnnousMagnalia 
Chrlsti Americana^ or Ecclesiastical History of New 
England^ from its First Planting in the Year 1620 ^ 
unto the Year of our Lord, 1698. 

Something over a thousand pages of closely printed 
The matter is included in the seven parts or vol- 

Sfrisu"* umes of this monumental work. The planting 
Americana, of New England and its growth, the lives of its 
governors and its famous divines, a history of Harvard 
College, the organization of the churches, " a faith- 
ful record of many wonderful Providences," and an 
" account of the Wars of the Lord — being an history 
of the manifold afflictions and disturbances of the 
churches in New England " — such is the scope of the 
Magnalia Christi Americana, or The Great Acts of 
Christ in America. 

It begins like an epic : — 

" I write the Wonders of the Christian Religion, flying 
from the depravations of Europe to the American Strand 
and, assisted by the Holy Author of that Religion, I do, 
with all conscience of Truth, required therein by Him, who 
is the Truth itself, report the wonderful displays of this 

^ Bonifacius, an Essay upon the Good that is to be Devised and 
Designed, with Proposals of unexceptionable Methods to do Good in the 
World. 



MATHER'S MAGNALIA 31 

infinite Power, Wisdom, Goodness, and Faithfulness, where- 
with His Divine Providence hath irradiated an Indian Wil- 
derness.'^ 

The style is pedantic and artificial, but the spirit of 
the writer is perfectly sincere. Now and then the narra- 
tive grows simple and strong. There is a frequent use 
of Old Testament phraseology which indicates a clear 
perception of its poetical value. Such, for example, is 
the account of Hannah Dustin's thrilling experiences 
among the Indians, at Haverhill, in 1697. This is the 
story of the woman's daring escape from captivity : — 

*' She heartened the nurse and the youth to assist her in 
this enterprise ; and all furnishing themselves with hatchets 
for the purpose, they struck such home blows upon the heads 
of their sleeping oppressors that e'er they could any of them 
struggle into any effectual resistance, at the feet of these 
poor prisoners, they hovfd^ they fell, they lay down ; at their 
feet they bowed, they fell; where they bowed, there they fell 
down dead.'' ^ 

The Magnalia, completed in December, 1697, was 
published at London in 1702. It stands fitly gig^ifj. 
enough as the last important literary effort of cance of 
seventeenth-century colonial Puritanism. Al- 
ready there were indications of a change in the current 
of New England religious life. The old extreme Puri- 
tan doctrines were in a decline ; and Mather's huge 
volume was a final utterance in defense of the fathers' 
faith. Not only had there come a change in the form 
of thought; in the style of literary expression, the 
change was as notable. English writers no longer fol- 
lowed the models of the later Elizabethan essayists ; 
their fantastic phraseology had been displaced by the 
direct and forceful diction of Bunyan and Dryden ; the 
easy, natural style of Addison, Steele, and Swift was 
^ The Song of Deborah and Barak, Judges v. 27. 



32 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

giving a new charm to English prose. Cotton Mather 
lived throughout the first quarter of the eighteenth 
century ; but in all essential respects, in personality 
and in utterance, he belongs wholly to the seventeenth. 
The consummate product of the old Puritan theology, 
he stands as the last important representative of the 
type in American literature. 

IV. PURITAN POETRY IN NEW ENGLAND : BAY PSALM 
BOOK, ANNE BRADSTREET, MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 

The Puritans were not susceptible to the charms of 
Early Purl- poetry. The strenuous life of the pioneer left 
tan Poetry, little time for cultivating any of the arts, and 
the spirit of New England was too serious and too 
stern to permit indulgence in what was merely pleasant 
or beautiful. Even after the first critical years of dan- 
ger and struggle were past, the intellectual life of the 
people was bounded by the narrow limits of religious 
discussion and theological debate. That the Puritan 
was not without imagination, however, is abundantly 
proved by the forceful figures and impassioned rhetoric 
of the prose writers whom we have been considering. 
Moreover, some of these same men did occasionally 
slip into rhyme. William Wood has been quoted.^ 
Even John Cotton was the author of verses, halting 
and rough-hewn, and full of the queer conceits which 
were common at the time. It is significant that this 
pious man wrote much of his verse in the pages of the 
household almanac, where it remained hidden from the 
public eye ; and sometimes he disguised its metrical 
character by inscribing it in Greek. 

Much ingenuity was expended upon epitaphs and 
obituary tributes — so solemn a theme as that of death 
justifying poetical expression. If there were any oppor- 

1 rage 19. 



THE BAY PSALM BOOK 33 

t unity to play upon the name of the deceased, the op- 
portunity was gracefully seized. When the Rev. Samuel 
Stone, the successor of Thomas Hooker at Hartford, 
died in 1663, his colleagues vied with one another in 
their fervid appreciations of his virtues. He was com- 
pared to the stone which Jacob set up and called Eben- 
ezer, and also to the stone with which David slew 
Goliath; he was termed 

" Whetstone, that edgef y'd th' obtusest mind : 
Loadstone, that drew the iron heart unkind." 

— and this within the compass of a single epitaph. 
One quotation will serve to show the skill with which 

these versifiers were sometimes able to conquer the dif- 
ficulties of rhyme : — 

" Here lies the darling" of his time, 
Mitchell expired in his prime ; 
Was four years short of forty-seven, 
Was found full ripe and plucked for heaven." ^ 

If poetry be rare among our forefathers, it is never- 
theless true that the first English book printed 
in America passed for poetry with them, and Bay Psalm 
for poetry of an edifying and noble type. The ^°°^' 
Whole Booke of Psalmes^ commonly known as the Bay 
Psalm Booh^ was printed on the new press at Cam- 
bridge in 1640.2 "Yhi?, work, designed to provide a met- 
rical version of the Psalms of David, to be used in the 
churches, contains the joint efforts of three New Eng- 
land ministers — "the chief divines in the country," 

— Richard Mather of Dorchester, Thomas Welde, and 
John Eliot, of Roxbury. The preface, written by 
Mather, declares that 

1 From an epitaph on Rev. Jonathan Mitchell of Cambridge, died, 
1668. From the Magnolia of Cotton Mather. 

2 The first article printed here was The Freeman's Oath, a single 
sheet, and the second was Pierce's Almanack, 1639. No other work is 
known to have been printed previous to 1640. 



34 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

" It hath been one part of our religious care and faithful 
endeavor to keep close to the original text. ... If , therefore, 
the verses are not always so smooth and elegant as some may 
desire or expect, let them consider that God's altar needs not 
our polishings, for we have respected rather a plain translation 
than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any para- 
phrase ; and so have attended Conscience rather than Ele- 
gance, fidelity rather than poetry." 

In illustration of the art displayed by these divines 
in their paraphrase, historians have invariably cited 
some of the most atrocious of the compositions. This 
seems hardly fair. The following examples are sufficient 
to show the average result of " the sad, mechanic ex- 
ercise " of these godly men : — 

" I in the Lord do trust ; how then 
to my soul do ye say, 
As doth a little bird, unto 
your mountain fly away ? 

" For lo the wicked bend their bow, 
their arrows they prepare 
On stringy ; to shoot in dark at them 
in heart that upright are." 

From paraphrase of Psalm xi. 

" Praise ye the Lord, praise God 

in 's place of holiness ; 
O praise him in the firmament 

of his great mightiness. 
O praise him for his acts 

that be magnificent, 

*' & praise ye him according to 

his greatness excellent. 

With trumpet praise ye him 

that gives a sound so high : 
& do ye praise him with the Harp 
&, sounding Psalterye." 

Psalm cl. 

The student may be sure that he will find many worse 
compositions in this collection ; it is doubtful if he will 



ANNE BRADSTREET 35 

find smoother. And yet the Bay Psalm Book served 
its sacred purpose in the New England churches for 
more than a century ; it was even used to some extent 
by Puritan worshipers in England and Scotland until 
after 1750. At the Old South Church in Boston, the 
Bay Psalm Book, although it had been revised, was 
not displaced until 1786. 

From the midst of the crude and sombre composi- 
tions of Puritan verse-makers, there arose one . 
writer for whom m some measure the poetical Bradstreet, 
gift may be claimed. This was Anne Brad- ^^^3-72. 
street. In 1650, the first volume of her poems was pub- 
lished in London. Upon the title-page of this volume 
the author was rather extravagantly introduced as " the 
Tenth Muse lately sprung up in America." Anne Brad- 
street, a really gifted woman, was the daughter of 
Thomas Dudley, a Puritan soldier and scholar, who 
has been described as a " typical narrow-minded, strait- 
laced Calvinist, for whom it is so much easier to 
entertain respect than affection." ^ Nevertheless, Anne 
Dudley was reared in comfort and enjoyed especially 
the dear delight of books. She was married at sixteen 
to Simon Bradstreet, a Puritan gentleman who after- 
ward became a leader in colonial affairs and a gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts. In 1630, the entire family 
joined the company of emigrants to America, Thomas 
Dudley holding the position of deputy governor under 
Winthrop. The Bradstreets settled near the present 
town of Andover, not far from the beautiful Merrimac. 
For this young wife, accustomed to an atmosphere of 
comfort and refinement, the experiences of pioneer life 
must have been trying in the extreme. Yet, in the wil- 
derness, amid its threatening perils, superintending the 
work which falls to the mistress of a farm, rearing and 
1 John Fiske, Beginnings of New England, p. 103. 



36 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

educating her eight children, Mrs. Bradstreet found 
comfort in literary occupation, and both time and spirit 
to write. The quality of her mind is shown in her prose, 
but it was as a poet that she found fame. In her verse, 
she is influenced by the work of such of the English 
poets as would naturally have impressed her : the devo- 
tional poems of John Donne, of Francis Quarles, author 
of the Divine Emblems ; of the Puritan poet, George 
Wither, and the deeply spiritual poetry of the saintly 
George Herbert. The verse of these minor English 
poets who flourished in the time of James and Charles I 
— the period of Anne Bradstreet's girlhood and early 
womanhood — was characterized by an unusual and 
fantastic style of thought and diction. These men are 
sometimes called the " metaphysical poets," because of 
this artificial quality and on account of their grotesque 
conceits. The crude rhymes of the colonial epitaphs 
already quoted, with their incongruous puns, are rather 
extreme examples of this fantastic style. The work of 
the " Tenth Muse " shows the influence of this taste for 
a strained and laborious ingenuity of expression. Her 
longer works are didactic ; so filled with the eager pur- 
pose to instruct and edify that the natural Puritan 
scruples regarding a woman's practice of the literary art 
were in large degree forgotten. The Four Elements 
and The Four Seasons are in the form of dialogue, 
wherein the speakers individually maintain their claims 
to preeminence ; these poems are mechanical and heavy 
compositions, but show a facility of phrase and rhythm 
quite new to the readers of colonial verse. The Four 
Monarchies, her most ambitious poem, is a rhyming 
chronicle based upon Sir Walter Ealeigh's History of 
the World. When Anne Bradstreet's poems were pub- 
lished, in 1650, they were received with extravagant 
praise in America ; and following her death, not a few 



THE 

TENTH MUSE ^ 

Lately fprungup in America. | 
OR I 

I Severall Poems, compiled | 
I with great variety of VVit | 
I and Learning/ull of delight. | 

I Wherein efpecially is contained a com- | 
!| pkac difcourfe and defcriptioQ of ?:• 

^ The Four)^^"^''^''''"^' I 

I KSeafonsoftherear. ^ S 

1 Together with an Exaft Bpltomie of | 
i3 the Four Monarchies, viz. ^ 
j| (AjfyTiariy ^ 

5 The ^^^'■^^"> 

6 ( Roman* 

2 Alfo a Dialogue between Old EwgUwi and 
NeWjConcerning the late troubles. 

With divers other pleafant and ferious Poems. 
By a Gentlewoman In thofe parts^ 
Printed at hondon for Stephen BomeU at the fignc of the 
Bible in Popes Head-Alley. 16^0. 

TITLE-PAGE OF ANNE BRADSTREET'S BOOK 
(Reduced) 




38 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

of her admirers essayed to express their appreciation 
in flattering verse. 

John Rogers, who before his death became presi- 
dent of Harvard College, paid his tribute to the genius 
of Anne Bradstreet in quite exalted utterance. One 
stanza of his composition may be quoted, in testi- 
mony to the effect produced in contemporary minds of 
literary taste by this gifted woman's work. 

" Twice have I drunk the nectar of your lines, 
Which high sublimed my mean-born fantasy. 
Flushed with these streams of your Maroniau wines, 
Above myself rapt to an ecstacy, 
Methoug-ht I was upon Mount Hybla's top, 
There where I might those fragrant flowers lop, 
Whence did sweet odors flow, and honey-spangles drop." ^ 

Let us now read a few stanzas written by Anne 
Bradstreet herself, taken from her best known and 
most attractive poem, Contemplations. It was written 
late in her life, at her home in Andover, and is properly 
described as " a genuine expression of poetic feeling iu 
the presence of nature." 

" I heard the merry grasshopper then sing. 
The black-clad cricket bear a second part. 
They kept one tune, and played on the same string, 
Seeming to glory in their little art. 
Shall creatures abject thus their voices raise ? 
And in their kind resound their maker's praise, 
Whilst I, as mute, can warble forth no higher lays? 

"Under the cooling shadow of a stately Elm, 
Close sate I by a goodly River's side, 
Where gliding streams the Rocks did overwhelm ; 
A lonely place with pleasures dignifi'd. 
I once that lov'd the shady woods so well, 
Now thought the rivers did the trees excel, 
And if the sun would ever shine there would I dwell. 



1 Quoted by Professor Tyler in his History of American Literature^ 
vol. ii, ch. xi. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH 39 

" While musing- thus with contemplation fed, 
And thousand fancies buzzing in my brain, 
The sweet tongu'd Philomel percht o'er my head, 
And chanted forth a most melodious strain, 
Which rapt me so with wonder and delight, 
•I judg'd ray hearing better than my sight, 
And wisht me wings with her awhile to take my flight." 

A few months before Aijne Bradstreet's death, she 
composed the following lines, which illustrate the aspi- 
rations of Puritanism in their noblest form : — 

" As weary pilgrim now at rest 
Hugs with delight his silent nest, 
His wasted limbs now lie full soft, 
That rairy steps have trodden oft, 
Pleases himself to think upon 
His dangers past and travails done ; 

" A pilgrim I, in earth perplexed, 
With sins, with cares and sorrows vexed, • 

By age and pains brought to decay, 
And my clay house mouldering away, 
Oh, how I long to be at rest 
And soar on high among the blest." 

While Mrs. Bradstreet's verse at its best exhibits 
the highest poetical accomplishment of seven- Michael 
teenth-century Puritanism in New England, ^qJ^J"" 
there was one other Puritan versifier whose I63i-1705. 
inspiration appealed yet more strongly to contemporary 
minds. This most popular of early American poets was 
Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, minister at Maiden, Massa- 
chusetts, author of a tremendous and dismal epic, sur- 
charged with the extreme Calvinism of the time. This 
masterpiece of Puritan theological belief is entitled The 
Day of Doom ; it was published in 1662, and for a 
hundred years remained — as Lowell expresses it — "the 
solace of every fireside " in the northern colonies. 

This long and desolate composition is an imaginative 



40 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

account of the Last Judgment. The voice of the trum- 
TheDayot P^* ^^ heard summoning the living and the 
Doom. dead before the dreadful bar. 

" Some hide themselves in Caves and Delves 

in places underground. 
Some rashly leap into the Deep, 

to scape by being drowned : 
Some to the Rocks (0 senseless blocks!) 

and woody mountains run 
That there they might this fearful sight, 

and dreaded Presence shun." 

In this jingling ballad measure, so strangely inap- 
propriate to his solemn theme, the reverend author pur- 
sues his gloomy way. It is not well to linger over this 
grotesque presentation of mediaeval art and logic ; yet 
it is through these crude expressions of the early litera- 
ture that we are brought in closest touch with some 
phases of the Puritan mind. First we are given the 
appeals of the condemned ; the children argue with 
reference to Adam's fall : — 

" Not we, but he ate of the Tree, 

whose fruit was interdicted : 
Yet on us all of his sad Fall, 

the punishment 's inflicted. 
How could we sin that had not been, 

or how is his sin our 
Without consent, which to prevent, 

we never had a power? " 

The reply is heard that Adam stood not for himself 
alone, but for all mankind ; that had he done well in- 
stead of ill, all would have shared in his benefits — nor 
would they have then protested that they deserved not 
to share therein, on the ground now urged. The inex- 
orable Judge does, however, yield a point in mercy to 
the children and infants: — 

" Yet to compare your sin with their 
who lived a longer time, 



PURITAN TYPES 41 

I do confess yours is much less, 
though every sin 's a crime. 

" A crime it is, therefore in bliss 

you may not hope to dwell ; 
But unto you I shall allow 

the easiest room in Hell. 
The glorious King thus answering, 

they cease and plead no longer : 
Their consciences must needs confess 

his reasons are the stronger." 

Much of Wigglesworth's vision is too lurid to be de- 
scribed here ; such raw strength as he applied in paint- 
ing the details of his fiery picture but intensifies the 
horror of it and increases our wonder that such con- 
ceptions could have prevailed. 

It is interesting to remember that at the very time 
when the Maiden minister was writing his puritan 
Day of Doom^ John Milton was engaged Types, 
upon the real epic of Puritan faith, one of the master- 
pieces of all literature. Paradise Lost was published in 
1667. It was but a decade thereafter that John Bunyan 
completed his beautiful religious allegory, PilgrMs 
Pi'ogr'ess. But the Puritanism of New England — its 
narrowness and hardness no doubt intensified by the 
isolation and, perhaps, the depression incident to life in 
a comparatively rude and struggling colony — was re- 
presented by the zealot, Michael Wigglesworth, with his 
sing-song verse, and the stern ascetic Cotton Mather, 
with his laborious and often fantastic prose. It was 
eminently fitting that when Wigglesworth died in 1705, 
the author of the Magnalia should have preached his 
funeral sermon. The two stand appropriately together. 
They taught the same doctrine ; and in their two great 
representative works they exhibit the literary attainment 
of Colonial America in the seventeenth century. 



42 EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE 

The following books will be found especially helpful for 
Suggestions reference and for supplementary reading: John 
lor Reading, pigke's Old Virginia and her Neighbours ; Be- 
ginnings of Neio England ; George P. Fisher's The Colo- 
nial Era {American History Series) ; R. G. Thwaites's 
The Colonies {Epochs of American History). The one au- 
thoritative work on early American literature is Moses Coit 
Tyler's monumental History of American Literature dur- 
ing Colonial Times (2 vols.) ; for teachers and advanced 
students of the subject Prof essor Tyler's books are invaluable. 
In Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Litera- 
ture are to be found extended selections from the works of 
all these early writers ; this excellent Library should be in 
every school, and in constant use for illustration during the 
course. 

The series of Old South Leaflets (published by the Old 
South Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts) contains re- 
prints of various papers of interest, notably : A Description 
of New England, by John Smith (No. 121). Manners and 
Customs of the Indians (from the New English Canaan) y 
by Thomas Morton (No. 87). The Lives of Bradford and 
Winthrop, by Cotton Mather (No. 77). Bradford's Memoir 
of Brewster (No. 48). Roger Williams' Letters to Winthrop 
(No. 54). Bradford's History of the Pllmoth Plantation^ 
with a report of the proceedings incident to the return of the 
manuscript to Massachusetts, was printed and published by 
the State at Boston, in 1901. The lives and times of Francis 
Higginson, Anne Bradstreet, and Cotton Mather have been 
presented in recent interesting biographies. The Scarlet 
Letter, by Hawthorne, F. J. Stimson's King Noanett, Mary 
Johnston's To Have and to Hold, with other standard works 
of fiction dealing with this colonial period, may be read with 
great advantage also. 



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CHAPTER II 
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

I. The First Half of the Century. 

II. Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790. 
III. The Second Half of the Century. 
IV. Poetry of the Revolution. 

V. The Close of the Century. 

I. THE FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY; THE PERSONAL 
TOUCH: SAMUEL SEW ALL, MRS. KNIGHT, EBENEZER 
COOK, WILLIAM BYRD, JONATHAN EDWARDS. 

In the study of literature, there is nothing more 
gratifying than the discovery of an author who has 
unconsciously put himself visibly into his book. Two 
or three American writers wrote thus amiably at this 
period of our colonial history, and their works form an 
interesting and welcome group. 

The most prominent of these was Judge Samuel 

- , Sewall, who arrived in America in 1661 and 
Samuel ' 

Sewall, settled at Newbury. He was a conspicuous 
1652-1730. j^^^ jj^ ^jj^ Massachusetts colony and became 
the Chief-justice of Massachusetts. Like his friend, 
Cotton Mather, he was involved in the witchcraft delu- 
sion and was one of the judges who condemned the 
victims to death. His repentance, his dramatic confes- 
sion of error and his annual fast are familiar tradition.^ 
It should be remembered, also, that in a little book, 
The Selling of Joseph (1700), Judge Sewall wrote the 
first published argument against slavery. From 1673 
to 1729, Samuel Sewall kept a diary — and thereby left 
^ Read Whittier's poem, The Prophecy of Samuel Sewall. 



SAMUEL SEWALL 45 

for generations of readers to come one of the most frank 
and unconventional records of the time. The publication 
of this journal ^ shows that it is worthy of a place with 
that of Samuel Pepys (pronounced Peps), of London, 
whose celebrated Diary covers the decade of 1659-69. 
The social life of colonial New England is most happily 
illustrated in Sewall's memoranda ; and the stiff state- 
liness of the stern old Puritan type loses at least its 
solemnity when we read the Judge's record of his 
unavailing suit for the hand of Madam Winthrop. 

[Oct. 6, 1720.] " A Httle after 6 P.M. I went to Madam 
Winthrop's. She was not within. I gave Sarah Chickering 
the Maid 2f, Juno, who brought in wood 1? Afterward the 
Nurse came in, I gave her 18^ having no other small Bill. 
After a while Dr. Noyes came in with his Mother [Mrs. 
Winthrop] ; and after his wife came in : They sat talking, I 
think, till eight a'clock. I said I f ear'd I might be some inter- 
ruption to their Business ; Dr. Noyes reply'd pleasantly : He 
f ear'd they might be an Interruption to me, and went away. 
Madam seemed to harp upon the same string [she had pre- 
viously declared that she could not break up her present 
home]. Must take care of her children ; could not leave that 
House and Neighborhood where she had dwelt so long. I told 
her she might doe her children as much or more good by 
bestowing what she laid out in Hous-keeping, upon them. 
Said her son would be of Age the 7**^ of August. I said it 
might be inconvenient for her to dwell with her Daughter- 
in-Law, who must be Mistress of the House. I gave her a 
piece of Mr. Belcher's Cake and Ginger-Bread wrapped up 
in a clean sheet of Paper ; told her of her Father's kindness 
to me when Treasurer, and I Constable. My daughter Judith 
was gon from me and I was more lonesome — might help to 
forward one another in our journey to Canaan. — Mr. Eyre 
came within the door ; I saluted him, ask'd how Mr. Clark 
did, and he went away. I took leave about 9 a'clock." 

1 Collections of the Mass. Historical Society, Boston, 1879. 



46 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

The Judge's suit did not prosper. 

"8f 21 [October 21.] Friday, My Son, the Minister, came 
to me p. m. by appointment and we pray one for another 
in the Old Chamber ; more especially respecting my Court- 
ship. About 6 a-clock I go to Madam Winthrop's. Sarah told 
me her Mistress was gon out, but did not tell me whither 
she went. She presently ordered me a Fire ; so I went in, 
having Dr. Sibb's Bowells with me to read. I read the first 
two Sermons, still no body came in : at last about 9 a-clock 
Mr. Jn? Eyre came in ; I took the opportunity to say to him 
as I had done to Mrs. Noyes before, that I hoped my visit- 
ing his Mother would not be disagreeable to him ; he an- 
swered me with much Respect. When twas after 9 a clock 
He of himself said he would go & call her, she was but at 
one of his Brothers : A while after I heard Madam Win- 
throp's voice enquiring something about John. After a good 
while and Clapping the Garden door twice or thrice, she came 
in. I mentioned something of the lateness ; she bantered me, 
and said I was later. She received me Courteously. I asked 
when our proceedings should be made publick : She said 
They were like to be no more public than they were already. 
Offer'd me no Wine that I remember. I rose up at 11 a'clock 
to come away, saying I would put on my coat, She offer'd 
not to help me. I pray'd her that Juno might light me home, 
she open'd the Shutter, and said twas pretty light abroad ; 
Juno was weary and gon to bed. So I came home by Star- 
light as well as I could. At my first coming in, I gave Sarah 
five shillings. I writ Mr. Eyre his name in his book with the 
date October 21, 1720. It cost me 8f Jehovah jireh." 

Among the most interesting personal narratives of 
this period is the Journal of Sarah K. 
Kembi© Knight^ which contains a lively account of 
1666-1727 ^ journey from Boston to New York made 
by this adventurous lady in 1704. Madam 
Knight was thirty-eight years of age — a native of 
Boston. She made the trip on horseback and was five 



WILLIAM BYRD 47 

days on the way between Boston and New Haven ; the 
distance between New Haven and New York occupied 
two days. The story is eloquent of the inconvenience 
and peril to which colonial travelers were subject, but 
the charm of the narrative is due to the vivacious per- 
sonality of its author, and to her abounding sense of 
humor which broadly illuminates the oddities of human 
nature encountered in the wilderness. 

To the student, as to the general reader, these bright 
and lively narratives of actual life are far more attract- 
ive than essays in more formal history ; in their power 
to revive the past they are far superior. The South as 
well as the North is represented thus in this same 
period. 

Born on a beautiful estate at Westover, Virginia, 
William Byrd became one of the most pro- ^^^^ 
minent and useful of those who served that Byrd, 

1674—1744 

colony at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. He was also its wittiest writer if not its most 
accomplished scholar. His education he received in Eng- 
land — as was customary with the youth of the South 
— and he was admitted to the English bar. After fur- 
ther travel in Europe, he returned to Virginia. He filled 
various official positions and became famed as the master 
of Westover, where he maintained a princely hospitality. 
In 1729, his duties assigned him to an expedition which 
fixed the boundary between Virginia and North Caro- 
lina ; and a narrative of this expedition Byrd wrote in 
the form of a journal. It was not until 1841, however, 
that the Westover manuscripts were published. The 
History of the Dividing Line^ as its author called it, is 
a picturesque and racy account of an interesting expe- 
rience. It was a laborious task — this of running the line 
of division from a point on the coast six hundred miles 
westward through a country wild and almost unknown, 



48 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

and which traversed the Great Dismal Swamp. In the 
gayest of spirits, the journal records the daily expe- 
riences of the expedition, vivaciously describing the 
locality, with its denizens both wild and tame. An his- 
torical sketch of Virginia is included in the narrative 
wherein Byrd humorously sets off the shortcomings of 
the first colonists — " about a hundred men, most of 
them reprobates of good families." Another journal en- 
titled A Progress to the Mines contains the account 
of a trip taken in 1733. 

There was no lack of historical writings in the col- 
onies durinoj this period of their growth. A 

HistorlOS or o 

young Virginian, Kobert Beverley, studying 
in London, was shown the text of a work upon the 
British Empire in America ; and was so disturbed by 
its inaccuracies that he himself prepared a History 
of Virginia which was honest and readable. Beverley's 
history was published in London in 1705, and again, 
enlarged and revised, in 1722. Rev. William Stith 
(1689-1755), president of William and Mary College,^ 
published in 1747 his first part of The History of the 
First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia^ bring- 
ing his narrative down only to 1624. He never car- 
ried the work further. It is based directly upon " the 
excellent but confused materials " of Captain John 
Smith, of whom Stith adds loyally : " I take him to 
have been a very honest man and a strenuous lover of 
truth." 

One other book dealing with a picturesque aspect of 
^jjg southern life at this time is worthy of notice ; 

Sot Weed it was one entitled The Sot Weed Factor; 
or^ a Voyage to Maryland^ published at Lon- 
don in 1708. The name of its author, Ebenezer Cook, 

^ William and Mary College was established at Williamsburg, Vir- 
ginia, in 1693. 



JONATHAN EDWARDS 49 

appears on the title-page, but of him we know nothing ; 
he may have been an American, he may have been 
merely an English visitor to our shores ; however, his 
work is a lively contribution to the literature of the 
period and presents in rough and ready rhyme a coarse 
but realistic satire of the writer's adventures among 
the tobacco agents — the "sot- weed factors" of Mary- 
land. He asserts his purpose to describe "the laws, 
governments, courts, and constitutions of the country, 
and also the buildings, feasts, frolics, entertainments, 
and drunken humors of the inhabitants." His style 
may be inferred from these opening lines : — 

" Condemned by fate to wayward curse 
Of friends unkind and empty purse, — 
Plagues worse than filled Pandora's box, — 
1 took ray leave of Albion's rocks ; 
With heavy heart concerned, that I 
Was forced my native soil to fly. 
And the old world must bid good-bye. 



Freighted with fools, from Plymouth sound 
To Maryland our ship was bound." 

Returning to New England, we find once more the 
intellectual leader of his age among the min- joj^athan 
isters. Jonathan Edwards was not only a ffreat Edwards, 

1703—58 

scholar and one of the most noted theolo- 
gians of the century in which he lived, but one of the 
most brilliant logicians that our country has ever pro- 
duced; and in the literature of philosophical study, 
he is still a commanding figure. Edwards was born in 
Connecticut, and was graduated from Yale College^ at 
seventeen. After a brief connection with that insti- 
tution as a tutor, he became pastor of the church in 

1 Yale College was founded, in 1701, at Saybrook, Connecticxit ; in 
171 <S, the institution was removed to New Haven and given its name 
in honor of Elihu Yale, its principal benefactor. 



60 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

Northampton, Massachusetts, where he remained until 
1750, when he resigned his charge and engaged in 
missionary work among the Indians in the western part 
of the colony. In 1758, he was called to the presidency 
of Princeton College,^ and died within a few weeks 
after his installation. 

In the records of Edwards's precocious childhood, in 
the breadth of his interests and in the scope and energy 
of his scholastic labors there is much that recalls the 
phenomenal career of Cotton Mather, but there was no 
real resemblance in the men ; Mather was ponderous, 
Edwards was profound. 

When a boy of twelve, Jonathan Edwards was an 
A Scientific acute observer of nature and wrote for a 
student. naturalist in England an account of his obser- 
vations on spiders. This interest in natural science he 
maintained in mature years. He advanced a theory of 
atoms, he demonstrated that the fixed stars are suns, 
he made interesting studies on the growth of trees and 
on the formation of river channels, he studied the 
principles of sound, the cause of colors, and the tenden- 
cies of winds, and anticipated Franklin's discovery of 
the nature of the lightning. 

Edwards's sermons have acquired a fame, not alto- 
gether desirable, perhaps, but almost unique 
Theologian. ? . . .' ^ . K - xj- ^ 

in the recognition oi their power, xlis most 

noted sermon, preached at Enfield, Massachusetts, in 
1741, on the theme Sinners in the Hands of an Angry 
God^ was so terrifying in its immediate effect that the 
people bowed in agony and the noise of their weeping 
and their cries obliged him to call for silence that he 
might be heard. Edwards became recognized as a de- 
fender of Calvinism at a time when strong opposition 
was developing against it. He was one of the conspic- 

* The College of New Jersey (now Princeton) was founded in 1746. 



' THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL 51 

uous leaders in the great revival movement in the 
forties, known as the Great Awakening — the religious 
movement in which the famous English preacher, 
George Whitfield, was a prominent figure. 

It is, however, as the author of an extraordinary 
book entitled A71 Inquiry into the Freedom The Freedom 
of the Will, that Jonathan Edwards holds of the wm, 
his position in American letters. This work 
is a defense of the Calvinistic doctrines of foreordi- 
nation, original sin, and eternal punishment. It is a 
masterpiece of philosophical reasoning, and although in 
the broadening of men's minds the old theological ideas 
have been greatly modified, the Freedom of the Will 
is still recognized as a profound work, and has a defi- 
nite place in the literature of theological discussion ; 
it has been called "the one large contribution which 
America has made to the deeper philosophic thought of 
the world." 

Jonathan Edwards was intensely spiritual, an " intel- 
lectual saint." The presence of an inner light 
glows in his refined and delicate features. 
A deep poetical temperament underlies his spiritual 
thought. His in 
Holiness makes 



thought. His imagination revels in beautiful figures 



" the Soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of 
pleasant flowers; enjoying a sweet calm, and the gently vivi- 
fying beams of the sun. The soul of a true Christian . . . 
appears like such a little white flower as we see in the 
spring of the year ; low and humble on the ground, opening 
its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of the sun's glory ; 
rejoicing, as it were in a calm rapture ; diffusing around a 
sweet fragrancy; standing peacefully and lovingly, in the 
midst of other flowers round about ; all in like manner 
opening their bosoms, to drink in the light of the sun. 

" So that, when we are delighted with flowers, meadows, 



52 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

and gentle breezes of wind, we may consider that we see 
only the emanation of the sweet benevolence of Jesus Christ. 
When we behold the fragrant rose and lily, we see His love 
and purity. So the green trees and fields, and singing of birds, 
are the emanation of His infinite joy and benignity. The 
easiness and naturalness of trees and vines are shadows of 
His beauty and loveliness. The crystal rivers and murmur- 
ing streams are the footsteps of His favour, grace and beauty. 
When we behold the light and brightness of the sun, the 
golden edges of an evening cloud, or the beauteous bow, we 
behold the adumbrations of His glory and goodness ; and in 
the blue sky, of His mildness and gentleness. There are 
also many things wherein we may behold His awful majesty : 
in the sun in his strength, in comets, in thunder, in the hover- 
ing thunder-cloud, in rugged rocks, and the brows of moun- 
tains. That beauteous light with which the world is filled in 
a clear day is a lively shadow of His spotless holiness and 
happiness and delight in communicating Himself." 

II. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN : 1706-1790. 

Next to Washington the most conspicuous and most 
widely useful of Americans throughout the eighteenth 
century was Benjamin Franklin. He was perhaps the 
most typical American of his time ; certainly he was 
the most versatile man of affairs and the most pic- 
turesque in personality of all that distinguished group 
who helped to guide the nation in that troubled age. 
Through the second quarter of the century he lived the 
quiet life of a thrifty, sagacious man of business, at 
the same time taking a practical interest in matters of 
public moment and presenting the most original model 
of good citizenship that can be found. His contribu- 
tion to American literature, the larger portion of which 
belongs to this earlier period of his career, is not great, 
but it is noteworthy. 

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, in 1706, of 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 53 

typical Puritan stock. His father, Josiah Franklin, 
who had come from England in 1685, was Boyhood 
a soap-boiler and candle-maker. At the sign in Boston, 
of the blue ball, near the South Meeting House, he had 
his little shop where he sold his soap and candles. 
Benjamin was the fifteenth in a family of seventeen 
children, and while the opportunities for formal edu- 
cation were not promising, Josiah Franklin, a man of 
sound understanding, was ingenious in providing means 
to improve the minds of his children. At table, he dis- 
cussed useful topics for their benefit. Benjamin, he de- 
signed for the ministry, and at eight years of age he 
sent him to school. Within the year, however, he was 
compelled to withdraw his boy from the school and soon 
after set him to work in the shop cutting wicks for the 
candles, filling the moulds, and running errands. This 
work proved distasteful, and after some efforts to find 
a trade that the boy would like, Ben was apprenticed 
to his brother James, who owned a printing business. 
It was a fortunate choice ; and here, for a time, he throve. 
From his earliest childhood, Franklin had a passion 
for books. So soon as he could read, he had Hawtsoi 
waded through the small library — a musty ^^^^y- 
collection of treatises on divinity — which he found on 
his father's shelves. With his first spending money, he 
bought the works of John Bunyan, in separate little 
volumes ; and these he later sold in order to buy Richard 
Burton's Hhtorical Collections^ small and cheap, in 
forty volumes. Among his father's books, he discovered 
a copy of Plutarch's Lives^ which he read "abun- 
dantly." A volume of Defoe, An Essay on Projects^ 
and that little work by Cotton Mather, known as Es- 
says to do Good^ Franklin afterward recalled as having 
given a turn to his thinking which directly influenced 
him in the principal events of his later life.* 

1 See page 30. 



54 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

He now obtained other books, and by chance secured 
an odd volume of the Spectator. This became not only 
a source of delight, but, by an ingenious system of his 
own devising, it also became a means of instruction in 
the art of expression, and in no small degree helped 
him to acquire a sound literary style. 

In 1721, James Franklin, the brother to whom Ben- 
TheNews- jamin had been apprenticed, began to publish 
paper. ^ newspaper. The New England Courant^ one 

of the first in the colonies.^ To this paper, articles 
were sometimes contributed by acquaintances who were 
interested in the project. It was not long before the 
printer's apprentice got the idea that he, too, could write 
readable articles ; but, suspecting that if he were known 
to be their author, his brother would refuse to print his 
pieces, Ben wrote the papers in a disguised hand and 
slipped them under the door of the printing-office at 
night. When these articles were read, the boy had the 
pleasure of hearing them approved by gentlemen who 
visited the office, and guesses made as to their author- 
ship. Once when James Franklin was arrested on ac- 
count of some indiscreet utterance regarding public 
affairs in his newspaper and compelled to undergo brief 
imprisonment, the conduct of the paper was turned over 
to Benjamin, who managed it alone and with success. 
However, the brothers did not get along well together ; 
there were differences and disputes ; and in 1723, when 
seventeen, Ben ran away. To raise a little money, he 
sold his books, slipped secretly aboard a sloop, and after 
three days' sail found himself in New York. He was 
without acquaintance, recommendations, or resources 
other than the knowledge of his trade, his shrewd prac- 
tical sense, and the sturdy self-reliance developed by 
his experience in the past. 

^ The Boston News-Letter was established in 1704; The Boston 
Gazette and The American Weekly Mercury (in Philadelphia) in 1719. 



LIFE IN PHILAt)ELPHIA 55 

Franklin did not secure employment in New York, 
but hearing that printers were needed in ^yj^^u^ 
Philadelphia, he proceeded to that city. The pmiadei- 
familiar sketch of Franklin as an awkward ^ *" 
youth trudging along Market Street, a large roll under 
each arm and hungrily devouring a third, dates from 
this period. He describes the scene himself, and says 
that a Miss Kead, his future wife, who was standing in 
her father's doorway, saw him pass in this guise, and 
commented on the uncouth appearance.^ 

In Philadelphia, Franklin soon found work at one of 
the two printing-shops then established in the town, and 
before long received some flattering notice from the 
governor of the colony. Sir William Keith. This gen- 
tleman proposed that Franklin set up in business for 
himself, promising him the government printing, and 
suggesting that he go to England to secure equipment 
for the office on the governor's indorsement. 

Highly elated, Franklin set out on his errand, but 
only to find that he had been grossly deceived. 
His supposed patron was discovered to be 
without credit or other means to fulfill his promise of 
assistance ; and thus again thrown on his own resources, 
this time in the city of London, the young American 
settled down to work at his trade. Eighteen months 
Franklin now spent in London, accumulating experi- 
ence — some of which he afterward deplored — and all 
the while establishing himself in habits of study, indus- 
try, and thrift. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1726, 
as yet but twenty years of age and not inadequately 
prepared for a picturesque and important career. 

The story of Franklin's life as a citizen of Philadel- 
phia is a record of successful enterprise and practical 
philanthropy. Again engaged in printing, he devel- 
1 Autobiography, chapter ii. 



56 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

oped a profitable business and in 1729 purchased a news- 

. „ . , paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, recently 
A Useful 1 T 1 1 1 1 . • 1 T • 

Citizen, established by a busmess rival. Just previous 

1726-17 . ^^ ^jjjg transaction, Franklin had written a 
series of humorous and satirical sketches, which he 
called The Busy Body papers ; these appeared in the 
issues of another Philadelphia paper which preceded 
the Gazette. Soon after his return from England, 
Franklin organized an association which he called the 
Junto ; it was composed of a few earnest young men of 
serious purpose and literary tastes who met regularly 
to discuss important themes, debate public questions, 
and in a general way to seek means of self-improve- 
ment. Out of this society, grew several interesting de- 
velopments. In time, similar clubs were organized, each 
presided over by one of the original members of the 
Junto, the existence of which was to some extent a 
secret. The usefulness of the institution was thus ex- 
tended and at the same time a means of influence was 
established which under the shrewd management of 
its founder materially helped Franklin in the further- 
ance of his ideas. 

While his private interests prospered as a result of 
Practical his shrewd practical policy, Franklin's activity 
Beneficence, ^^^g |^y ^^ means restricted to these. The 
same principles of industry, thrift, and common-sense he 
applied, as opportunity offered, in matters affecting the 
comfort and common good of all. It was at his instance 
that the first organized system of police protection dis- 
placed the old method of the city "watch." He organized 
the first volunteer fire department ; and by his efforts 
the service of a state militia was inaugurated. At his 
suggestion, the members of the Junto joined in buying 
books for their use in common, and established a library 
which was the beginning of the circulating library sys- 



A MAN OF LETTERS 57 

tern in America. In 1744, Franklin organized the Philo- 
sophical Society of Philadelphia, and five years later 
succeeded after considerable effort in founding an acad- 
emy for the education of the youth in the state ; out of 
this academy grew the University of Pennsylvania. 
Many minor improvements in municipal methods also 
came through his suggestion and persistent advocacy. 
Thus the Philadelphia markets were paved, and then 
all the city streets, and provision was made for keep- 
ing them clean. The invention of an open stove, still 
used and known as the Franklin stove, he gave freely 
to the public, refusing to accept a patent therefor, when 
one was offered him by the governor. 

Such a record speaks eloquently not only of Frank- 
lin's sagacity, but also of his genuine benevolence. * Al- 
though it was his policy to keep his own personality in 
the background, it is no wonder that his services were 
recognized, and that he was now regarded as the lead- 
ing citizen in Philadelphia. He was able to retire from 
active business in 1748, and was henceforward wholly 
employed in matters of public welfare. Since 1737, 
he had been postmaster of Philadelphia. In 1750, he 
was elected a member of the General Assembly. 

We have already noted the modest beginnings of 
Franklin's literary work in the contributions a Man of 
made anonymously, while an apprentice, to ^®**®^^" 
his brother's paper in Boston. These articles, signed 
with the pen-name Silence Dogood, inspired by Cotton 
Mather's Essays to do Good^ and formed on the style 
of Addison, were merely experimental. The Busy Body 
papers, contributed to the Philadelphia Mercury in 
1728-29, are not notable except for their well-devel- 
oped sense of humor. But in 1732, Franklin published 
the first issue of his famous Almanac^ which for a quar- 
ter of a century appeared annually, exercising no small 



58 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

influence on habits and morals througliout the colo- 
nies. 

To appreciate the popularity of Franklin's annual, 
The it is necessary to recall the lack of original 

Almanac, literature in America at that time. Among 
the common people, except the Bible, the printed ser- 
mons of the New England clergy, and their theological 
pamphlets, there was little if any reading matter of any 
sort. The almanac, however, was an established and 
cherished institution. It was as universal as the Bible 
itself. Various printers issued almanacs ; peddlers car- 
ried them about in their packs; one hung in every 
chimney-corner. Their owners used them as receptacles 
for their memoranda and accounts. Such crude para- 
graphs and wise saws as might be found inserted among 
the calculations supplied about everything in the way 
of "profane" literature which was accessible to the 
people at large. No less than seven of these annual 
publications were appearing regularly in Philadelphia 
when Franklin's first issue appeared. Their predictions 
were vague and unsatisfying. " Rain here or in South 
Carolina," said one ; " cold to the northward, warm to 
the southward," it declared. The editors, however, 
prided themselves on the fact that if they missed the 
mark in their weather forecasts, they were usually cor- 
rect in placing the day of the week on its proper date 
in the month — and that, after all, was the most useful 
thing in an almanac. 

The new publication, "by Richard Saunders, Philo- 
"Poor math," was different from its predecessors. 

Richard." Franklin created a character. Poor Richard, 
in whose name the work appeared, and whose real ex- 
istence was debated humorously and seriously. Scat- 
tered among the calculations, were many crisp sayings 
introduced by the phrase " As Poor Richard says," — 



Poor Richard, 1733. 



A N 

Almanack 

FortheYearofChrift 

17 3 3' 

Being the Firft afrer LEAP YEAR: 

j^nd makes ftrtce the Creation Y €aTS 

By the Account of the Eartcm Creeks 7241 

By the Latin Church, when O cm. X <^952 

By the Computation oF JV.ft^. ^-j^x 

By the Roman Chronology 5^&Z 

By the Jcwtjb Babbies 5494 

fVhereitJ is contaimct 
The Lunations, Edipfes, Judgment .of 
the Weather, Spring Tides, Planets Morions & 
mufuat Afpefts, Sun and Moon's Rifing and Set- 
ting, Length of Days, Time of High Water, 
Fairs, Courts, and obfervable Days 

Fitted to the Latitude of Forty Degrees, 
and a Meridian of Five Hours Weft from London^ 
but may without fenfible Error, (erve ai\ the ad- 
jacent Places, even from Newfoundland to SdaA^ 
Carol ma. 



By RICHARD SJUNDERS,VhJ\om. 

PHILADELPHIA: 

Printed and fold by B. FRj^NKLW, at the New 
I Prin ting Office near the Market. 

FIRST ISSUE OF FRANKLIN'S "POOR RICHARD'S 

ALMANAC " — first page 

(Original size 2% X 5% inches) 



60 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

sayings which have taken their place among the max- 
ims of the world. 

" Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee." 
" One today is worth two tomorrows." 
" Plow deep while sluggards sleep." 
" An empty sack cannot stand upright." 
" Fools make feasts and wise men eat them." 
*' He that by the plow would thrive 
Himself must either hold or drive." 

These and scores of similar homely proverbs weve 
incorporated in the Almanac. It was Franklin's idea to 
teach lessons of thrift to his countrymen. Some of the 
sayings he coined entire, others he quoted from various 
sources. They were finally sifted and collected in per- 
manent form in a lengthy discourse called Father 
Abraham^ s Speech^ which was included in the Almanac 
of 1758 and found its way thus into well-nigh every 
home in America. Father Ahrahanis Speech was trans- 
lated into every European language, and even to this 
day continues to teach its useful lesson of industry, fru- 
gality, and 'honesty, the world over. 

Franklin's other literary success was his famous Au- 
The Auto- tobiography^ which he began to write in 1771, 
biography, resumed in 1788, and left incomplete at his 
death. The purpose of its author was to make the ex- 
periences of his own career, the conduct and habit of 
life which had led to success in his own case, a source 
of help and inspiration to others. He therefore tells the 
story of his struggles, his errors, his experiments with 
himself, his accomplishment, with wonderful frankness 
and extreme simplicity. 

Take for example the following passage : ^ — 

" The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting 

1 Chapter vi. The reference is to the subscription library established 
by Franklin's effort. 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 61 

the subscriptions made me soon feel the impropriety of pre- 
senting one's self as the proposer of any useful project that 
might be supposed to raise one's reputation in the smallest 
degree above that of one's neighbors, when one has need of 
their assistance to accomplish that project. I therefore put 
myself as much as I could out of sight, and stated it to be a 
scheme of a number of friends^ who had requested me to go 
about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of read- 
ing. In this way, my affairs went on more smoothly, and I 
ever after practiced it on such occasions ; and from my fre- 
quent successes, can heartily recommend it. The present little 
sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid. If it 
remains a while uncertain to whom the merit belongs, some 
one more vain than yourself may be encouraged to claim it, 
and then even envy will be disposed to do you justice, by 
plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring them to their 
right owner. This library afforded me the means of improve- 
ment by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two 
each day, and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the 
learned education my father once intended for me. Reading 
was the only amusement I allowed myself. I spent no time in 
taverns, games, or frolics of any kind ; and my industry in 
my business continued as indefatigable as it was necessary. I 
was indebted for my printing-house ; I had a young family 
coming on to be educated, and I had two competitors to con- 
tend with for business who were established in the place be- 
fore me. My circumstances, however, grew daily easier. My 
original habits of frugality continuing, and my father having, 
among his instructions to me when a boy, frequently repeated 
a proverb of Solomon, ' Seest thou a inan diligent in his 
calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before 
mean men,^ I thence considered industry as a means of obtain- 
ing wealth and distinction, which encouraged me, — though 
I did not think that I should ever literally stand before kings, 
which, however, has since happened ; for I have stood before 
five, and even had the honor of sitting down with one, the 
King of Denmark, to dinner." 



62 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

The predominant quality in all of Franklin's writ- 
Character- ing is its genuine humanness ; this is what 
LUeTary^^* brought the Almanac into instant popularity, 
Work. and what makes the Autobiography an en- 

during American classic. It is a quality that had been 
extremely rare in the earlier colonial literature. A keen 
sense of humor, also, homely and blunt but true, is 
constant in Franklin's work and one of the essential 
factors in its success. Noted examples of his wit are 
found in his anecdote of The Whistle and The Dialogue 
between Dr. Franklin and the Gout^ which are among 
the papers entitled Bagatelles^ written when Franklin 
was in France. 

Franklin's literary work was thoroughly typical of 
himself. Honest, plain, democratic, clear-headed, 
shrewd, worldly-wise, he was interested in the practical 
side of life. To him the matter of " getting on " in the 
world was a duty ; and to enable others to see the 
advantages of integrity, application, and thrift was his 
self-appointed task. His influence in this direction was 
immense. The absence of ideality is obvious in all his 
compositions. He never reached the high levels of im- 
aginative art, but on this lower plane of material 
interest and every-day life he was, and is, without a 
peer among writers. The works which have been men- 
tioned possess a universal charm. " I will disinherit 
you," said Sidney Smith to his daughter, " if you do 
not admire everything written by Franklin." 

Of Franklin's later life, his large usefulness to this 
1750-1790, country throughout the Revolutionary pe- 
to^tiie^Coun- ^^^^^ l^^s distinctions and his honors, only a 
toy. bare summary can be given here. In 1753, 

he was appointed Postmaster-general and established 
the postal system on a paying basis. In 1757, he was 
sent to England as the representative of Pennsylvania 



SERVICE TO THE COUNTRY 63 

— his duties keeping him there for the ensuing five 
years. From 1764 to 1775, he was again in England, 
the official representative of four of the colonies, Penn- 
sylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Georgia. 
The day after his landing again in America, he was 
appointed a member in the Second Continental Con- 
gress, where he was conspicuous for the next fourteen 
months. It was he who, with characteristic humor, 
declared, after the signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence: "Yes, we must all hang together, or as- 
suredly we shall all hang separately." In September, 
1776, Franklin was sent to France as a special envoy 
to win the sympathy and assistance of that country for 
the new nation. How well he succeeded in his mission, 
and what enthusiasm of popular admiration was aroused 
by his homely, benevolent personality are matters of 
familiar history. On his return, after having been 
relieved by Jefferson, in 1783, he was at once made a 
member of the Constitutional Convention, which finally 
adopted the Constitution of the United States. 

"I seem to have intruded myself into the company 
of posterity," he said, "when I ought to have been 
abed and asleep." He was seventy-seven years old. 
He had seen the development of his country from ten 
disunited colonies with a population of 400,000 into a 
nation of thirteen united states with a population of 
4,000,000. In the making of that nation, no American 
had borne a more useful or more conspicuous part. 
His place in our political history is emphasized by the 
fact that his signature is found appended to four great 
documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty 
of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with 
England, and the Constitution. Of no other American 
can this be declared. 

But this record of Franklin's versatility is by no 



64 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

means complete. The final word must be concerning 
his services to Science. Throughout his life, 
and he was an eager searcher after truth, an ardent 

ScienUst. g^udent of nature. His private correspond- 
ence is full of the matter of his investigations which 
he prosecuted with great intelligence and with remark- 
able results. As Mr. Franklin, the philosopher, he was 
renowned among contemporary scholars. That famous 
experiment with the kite and key which identified elec- 
tricity with the lightning, was only one of many which 
brought him fame. The colleges of Yale and Harvard 
conferred on the soap-boiler's son the degree of M. A. 
He was honored by the scientific scholars of St. 
Petersburg, London, and Paris. He was a member of 
the Eoyal Society. When his death occurred in 1790, 
it was a French scholar who wrote the epitaph so often 
quoted : — 

" Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis." 

Such is, in outline, the record of this remarkable man 
— " the many-sided Franklin," as he is appropriately 
called, our first great American. It was in keeping 
with his intensely practical nature that Franklin should 
devise a peculiar, a unique plan of beneficence for the 
good of posterity. In his will, he bequeathed to the city 
of Philadelphia, and to the city of Boston, each, the 
sum of £1000. These funds were to be used in loans, 
under restrictions, to young tradesmen, in small amounts ; 
principal and interest were to be allowed to accumulate 
in each case for one hundred years, when, as Franklin 
calculated, each fund should amount to <£131,000. A 
division was then to be made, .£100,000 to be with- 
drawn and be applied by each city upon public works, 
and the remainder be placed again in service for a 
second hundred years. At the expiration of that period, 
the donor thought that each fund would aggregate 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 65 

something over X4,000,000, and devised that in each 
instance the sum should then be divided between the 
city and the commonwealth, to be applied in any form 
that should be thought best. Unfortunately, in the face 
of changed conditions, Franklin's idea proved imprac- 
ticable ; however, the city of Boston did possess in this 
fund, at the end of the period stipulated by the will, the 
sum of 1400,000. The city appropriated 1100,000 addi- 
tional (which was used in buying land) and the entire 
amount of the Franklin Fund was applied in building 
and equipping a great evening technical school, to be 
known as The Franklin Union. Mr. Andrew Carnegie 
has given the sum of 1400,000, which has been set aside 
as an endowment fund, the income from which provides 
for the running expenses of the institution. 

III. SECOND HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ; THE 
REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD: SPEECHES, ARGUMENTA- 
TIVE ESSAYS, STATE PAPERS. 

In the second half of the eighteenth century, our lit- 
erature presents the vivid reflection of that momentous 
struggle for independence upon which the American 
colonies had entered. Fiery speeches, able arguments 
set forth in newspapers and in pamphlets, sharp and 
bitter satire served to give utterance to the thought and 
passion of men's minds. One feature of this activity 
must be emphasized : geographical lines were now for- 
gotten ; the literature of this period is no longer local ; 
essayists, versifiers, orators were inspired by a common 
purpose and by a devotion to the interests of the country 
at large. 

Greatest of the Massachusetts orators and conspicu- 
ous at the beginning of the struggle was James james otis 
Otis. He was a graduate of Harvard, and a 1725-83. 
prominent lawyer in Boston. In 1761, following the 



66 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

accession of George III, in the previous year, there arose 
in Massachusetts a debate over granting the new Writs 
of Assistance to officers of the customs in that colony. 
In February of that year, Otis, in the council chamber 
at Boston, delivered an argument against the legality of 
these writs which is sometimes described as the prologue 
of the Revolution.^ Of this passionate address, no com- 
plete record exists, but John Adams, who reported it, 
declares that American independence was then and there 
born. " Otis was a flame of fire," Adams declares. 
" Such a profusion of learning, such convincing argu- 
ment, and such a torrent of sublime and pathetic elo- 
quence — that a great crowd of spectators and auditors 
went away absolutely electrified." ^ Three years later, 
Otis published a pamphlet. The Hights of the British 
Colonies Asserted and Proved — one of the most acute 
and powerful among the many political papers of these 
years. 

The historic events of the period came in quick suc- 
Pouticai cession. The Stamp Act, passed in 1765, was 
Essayists, repealed in the following year ; but taxes on 
tea, paper, glass, paints, and other articles were levied 
in 1767. Petitions, appeals, and resolutions were numer- 
ous. Pamphlets and essays appeared in great numbers. 
To these years belong the political papers of Franklin, 
who contributed vigorously to these discussions. Samuel 
Adams (1722-1803), tax collector of the town of Bos- 
ton, was a voluminous essayist — of whom a tory gov- 
ernor declared "every dip of his pen stings like a 
horned snake." 

Both sides participated in this fierce debate, for there 
were not a few in the colonies who remained loyal to 
England throughout the struggle. Following the assem- 

1 Tyler's Literary History of the American Revolution, chapter ii. 

2 Correspondence of John Adams, Wo7-ks, vol. x, p. 183., 



THE ORATORS 67 

blage of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, there 
appeared in New York a series of four pamphlets 
dealing with the great questions of the time from the 
tory standpoint. These were signed " Westchester 
Farmer " ; they were incisive, picturesque, witty, and 
readable. " If I must be devoured, let me be devoured 
by the jaws of a lion, and not gnawed to death by rats 
and vermin," declared the audacious pamphleteer. 
These papers aroused a storm of patriotic protest in 
the midst of which it is interesting to find a pamphlet 
entitled The Farmer Refuted^ the essay of a youth of 
eighteen, young Alexander Hamilton, then a student 
in King's College.^ The "Farmer" was identified with 
the Rev. Samuel Seabury, an Episcopal clergyman of 
Westchester, New York, and was made to pay dearly 
for his bold utterances by some of the excitable patriots 
in his vicinity. He suffered many indignities, but after 
the close of the conflict resumed his position and ended 
his life in peace, honored by many of his former foes. 

Chief among the orators of the South was Patrick 
Henry (1736-99), of whom Jefferson said : ^he 
"He appeared to me to speak as Homer Orators, 
wrote." It was he who in the opening speech of the 
first Congress uttered the ringing declaration, " I am 
not a Virginian but an American " ; and he who in 
the Virginia Assembly, March 23, 1775, delivered the 
address which ranks as one of the classics of American 
eloquence. Along with Otis, in the North, stands the 
familiar figure of John Hancock (1737-93). In the 
speech which he delivered in 1774, on the anniversary 
of the Boston Massacre, he expressed in characteristic 
phrases the fervor of the time : " Burn Boston and 
make John Hancock a beggar, if the public good re- 
quires." Joseph Warren (1741-1775), a Boston phy- 

^ Now Columbia University, founded in 1754. 



68 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

sician, in his address on the next anniversary of the 
Massacre, exclaimed : " These fellows say we won't 
fight ; by Heavens ! I hope I shall die up to my knees 
in blood." It was but a few weeks thereafter that the 
unconscious prophecy was realized at Bunker Hill. If 
much of this oratory was turgid, it nevertheless ex- 
pressed the sincere sentiment of those who gave it 
voice. Such was the spirit of the time. Josiah Quincy 
(1744-75) spoke for many another as well as for him- 
self when he declared : " If to appear for my country 
is treason, and to arm for her defense is rebellion — 
like my fathers, I will glory in the name of rebel and 
traitor, as they did in that of Puritan and enthusiast." 

The newspapers teemed with articles signed with 
symbolic names: Publius, Vindex, Candidus, Novan- 
glus, etc. 

In the flood of political papers, with which patriotic 

mv - writers delugjed the colonies, there was none 
Tnomas ^ ° ' 

Paine, which wrought such effect as the pamphlet 

* entitled Common Sense, published by Thomas 
Paine. Paine was an Englishman of radical mind, who, 
after an unpretentious career in his own country, came 
to America in 1774, equipped only with a note of in- 
troduction from Benjamin Franklin. Catching the spirit 
of the hour, and seeing the logical issue of events as few, 
if any, of the colonists had done, in 1776, he sent forth 
his epoch-making work. He first pointed out that the 
present struggle must lead to national independence. 
His literary style was not impressive, the logic of his 
argument was not invincible, but the effect of his paper 
was electric. One hundred and twenty thousand copies 
were sold within three months. In France, and even 
in England, its power was felt. The authorship of the 
pamphlet, which was anonymous, was ascribed to Frank- 
lin. It carried conviction in America, and made the 



THE FEDERALIST 69 

issues of the conflict clear. During the war, Paine 
published a series of papers called The Crisis, the 
opening sentence of which — " These are the times that 
try men's souls," became a proverbial phrase. Later he 
went to France, and in his enthusiasm for the cause of 
Eevolution there, wrote The Bights of Man (1791-92), 
a reply to Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, 
In The Age of Reason (1794-96), a bitter attack on 
Christianity, Paine's radicalism appears in its extreme 
form ; it is an unpleasant work and does not discover 
the earlier power or skill of its author. 

After the conclusion of the war, during that critical 
period which preceded the adoption of a con- 
stitution, there appeared at intervals a very Federalist, 
notable series of papers which were designed ^'^^^"^®- 
in their entirety to set forth the fundamental principles 
of government. These appeared as articles contributed 
to various New York newspapers. There were eighty- 
five in all, and their authorship was concealed under the 
pseudonym of " Publius." In 1788, these papers were 
collected and published under the name of The Fed- 
eralist — a collection which ranks as our chief political 
classic. Of these famous papers, five are attributed to 
John Jay, twenty-nine to James Madison, and fifty-one 
to Alexander Hamilton. 

Two other great state documents — eloquent products 
of this exalted time — demand a place in the The 
record of our nation's literature. The Decla- ^f^lf'"'' 
ration of Independence was drafted by Consutution. 
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), a Virginian. Its sonor- 
ous sentences need not be subjected to depreciation 
by the colder literary criticism of to-day. Its lines 
were written by men who were intensely stirred by the 
spirit of their deeds. " We hold these truths to be self- 
evident: that all men are created equal; that they are 



70 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness." 

Thomas Jefferson was a fluent writer and a states- 
man who left a lasting impress on the political thought 
of his country. An exponent of the principles of popu- 
lar government and a champion of individual freedom, 
he is the great representative of democracy in America, 
and is looked upon as father of the ideas embodied in 
the Democratic party. He published Notes on Virginia, 
wrote a compact Autobiogra'phy, founded the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, and established in that institution a 
chair of English — the first in America. 

The Constitution of the United States, adopted in 
1788, which was described by Gladstone as " the most 
wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the 
brain and purpose of man," owed its precise formula- 
tion largely to the labors of Alexander Hamilton 
(1757-1804), the brilliant champion of the federal 
principle in national government which insists upon the 
centralization of authority, and the unity of the federal 
relation. Hamilton, therefore, is recognized as the first 
exponent of those ideas which are now represented 
theoretically in the present Republican party. 

These men, the orators, the pamphleteers, the states- 
men, of that generation were not unworthy contempo- 
raries of Fox, Chatham, and Burke, the great English 
parliamentarians whose eloquence and statesmanship 
were matched with theirs. " When your lordships look 
at the papers transmitted to us from America, when 
you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you 
cannot but respect their cause," said the Earl of Chat- 
ham, in 1775 ; and Edmund Burke, in his remarkable 
speech on Conciliation with America, pays a notable 
tribute to the legal knowledge of the colonists. 



POETRY OF THE REVOLUTION 71 

Not to be overlooked by the student of this j)eriod 
are a few productions which are not so deeply jo^j^^ig 
colored by the political spirit of the time, and 
Such are the collected Letters of Washington, 
of Jefferson, of John Adams and his wife, Abigail ; 
the Farewell Address of Washington to his troops ; 
and the Journal of John Woolman, a Quaker, — which 
was beloved of Whittier,* and received the praises of 
Charles Lamb. 

IV. POETRY OF THE REVOLUTION : SATIRES, EPICS, AND 
BALLADS. 

The Revolutionary period was not without its poets. 
From the beginning of the conflict, in 1775, to the end, 
there was a copious flow of verse which sprang naturally 
enough from the turbulence of popular excitement and 
emotion. Here and there among the crude productions 
of these unschooled rhymers, one comes upon compo- 
sitions which show an unexpected strength of feeling 
expressed with considerable literary art. This is espe- 
cially true of the political satires and the ballads which 
are conspicuous in Revolutionary literature. 

Foremost among the tory versifiers — for both parties 
in the contest had their literary champions in Jonathan 
metre as in prose — was Jonathan Odell, who Odeii, 

1 J i.1. i.T- 1737-1818. 

invoked the muse thus : — 

*' Grant me for a time 
Some deleterions powers of acrid rhyme, 
Some ars'nic verse, to poison with the pen 
These rats who nestle in the lion's den." 

Odell came of pioneer Puritan stock and was himself 
a native of New Jersey. He was a graduate of Princeton, 
and became a surgeon in the British army. He later 
went to England, where he took orders for the Church. 

1 The Journal was edited by Whittier, in 1871. 



72 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

Returning to New Jersey, he became rector of the 
parish in Burlington. With the outbreak of hostilities, 
and the development of violence against all suspected 
of royalist sympathies, the clergyman was forced to take 
flight ; and as a refugee, he remained in New York until 
the evacuation of the British troops. 

Odell's literary talent was soon engaged in the com- 
position of satiric poems; modeled on the satires of 
Dryden and Pope, they show considerable merit. Odell 
wrote with a trenchant pen. There is no humor in his 
satire — it is wit, caustic, biting; the tone of his verse 
is the tone of bitter, implacable invective. Four satires, 
all written in 1779, furnish the best examples of his 
verse: The Word of Congress^ The Congratulation^ 
The Feu de Joie^^ and The American Times. The fol- 
lowing: lines from the last of his satires are sufficient 
to exhibit his skill in satire and in verse : — 

" What cannot ceaseless impudence produce ? 
Old Franklin knows its value and its use : 
He caught at Paine, relieved his wretched plight, 
And gave him notes, and set him down to write. 
Fire from the Doctor's hints the miscreant took, 
Discarded truth, and soon produced a book, — 
A pamphlet which, without the least pretence 
To reason, bore the name of Common Sense. 



The work like wildfire, through the country ran, 
And Folly bowed the knee to Franklin's plan. 
Sense, reason, judgment were abashed and fled. 
And Congress reigned triumphant in their stead." 

Persistent in his attitude, irreconcilable and belliger- 
ent still, Jonathan Odell forsook the colonies at the close 
of the contest and migrated to Nova Scotia, where he 
lived to old age, unconvinced and unrelenting to the 
last. 

Three Revolutionary poets of large and serious pur- 

1 The Bonfire. 



THE HARTFORD WITS 73 

pose, and widely famed in their generation, may be 
grouped together, not only because of some j,^q jjart- 
similarity in their verse, but also because they *ord wits, 
were all Connecticut men ; two were conspicuous mem- 
bers of a coterie noted as " the Hartford Wits." That 
Connecticut town, indeed, enjoyed a reputation as a lit- 
erary centre through the exploits of this group. The 
two Hartford poets were John Trumbull and Joel Bar- 
low ; the third of this group was Timothy Dwight. 

Trumbull's contribution was a long satire, a burlesque 
epic, entitled McFingal. It was modeled on ^^^^ 
Butler's Hudihras — a famous English satire Trumbuu, 
of the seventeenth century directed at the 
Puritans. The Yankee poet, borrowing the rollicking 
measure of the earlier satirist, narrates the misad- 
ventures of his hero — a tory squire in the midst of 
patriots. The poem first appeared in January, 1776, 
was afterward expanded and reappeared, in four cantos, 
in 1782. McFingal is full of native Yankee wit and 
humor, and contains many clever couplets — couplets 
which have passed for Butler's : — 

" No man e'er felt the halter draw, 
With good opinion of the law ; 
Or held in method orthodox 
His love of justice in the stocks ; 
Or failed to lose by sheriff's shears 
At once his loyalty and ears." 

So popular was this merry epic, McFingal, that it ran 
to thirty editions. It was a source of joy in the camps 
of the Continentals, and nerved the arm of many a tired 
soldier in the ranks. 

Still more ambitious was the effort of Joel Barlow, 
who published, in 1787^ his Vision of Colum- j^^j 
bus. In 1807, the completed work appeared Barlow, 
under the epic title The Coluwhiad, It was 
a prodigious poem, intended to be a second Iliad. Fol- 



74 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

lowing a plan employed by Milton in the eleventh book 
of Paradise Lost^ Columbus is led to the hill of Vision 
and is shown the future greatness of the land he had 
discovered. The patriotic fervor of the author is intense. 

" I sing the mariner who first unfurled 
An eastern banner o'er the western world, 
And taught mankind where future empire lay 
In these fair confines of descending day." 

In 1793, Barlow composed in lighter vein another 
poem which has outlived the ponderous epic. This is the 
happy composition in honor of Hasty Pudding^ one of 
our best examples of light and fanciful verse. The poem 
was written when Barlow was abroad in Savoy, and was 
dedicated to no less a personage than Lady Martha 
Washington. The poet still uses the heroic couplet, this 
time in moc^-heroic strain ; and the humorous realism 
of his rural scenes is no less attractive to the modern 
reader than it was to those who first enjoyed the poet's 
glorification of this homely theme. 

The third writer in this group, Timothy Dwight, was 
the grandson of Jonathan Edwards ; and he 
Dwight, became in time the president of Yale College. 
1752-1817. rpjjg subject of his epic — for his inspiration 
was also epical — is Religion. It was entitled The Con- 
quest of Canaan ; and it appeared in 1785. It is de- 
scribed by its author as " the first of the kind which 
has been published in this country." ^ The spirit of the 
Revolution is felt in the treatment of even this ancient 
theme; and the ingenious device by which the great 
event of American history in the latter part of the 
eighteenth century is linked with this epic recital of 
Israelitish wars is very amusing. 

Timothy Dwight was, like his grandfather Edwards, 
a man of marvelous energy and of great literary pro- 
1 It preceded by two years Barlow's Vision of Columbus. 



REVOLUTIONARY SONGS AND BALLADS 75 

ductiveness ; he inherited, however, none of the genius 
which distinguished Jonathan Edwards's scholarly work. 
His Theology Explained and Defended^ in five vol- 
umes, does not resemble the famous treatise on TJie 
Freedom of the Will. The most interesting example of 
his prose is the Travels in New England and New 
York — four volumes of letters fictitiously addressed to 
an English correspondent, and filled with observations 
made during his summer travels in his gig. 

In 1777 and 1778, Dwight served as an army chap- 
lain and employed his lyric gifts with patriotic fervor. 
His best remembered song, Columbia^ Columbia^ to 
glory arise^ was the fruit of this period. The fact 
that he was the author also of the hymn, I Love thy 
Kingdom^ Lord^ should certainly not be forgotten. In 
Greenfield Hill (1794) we find a very interesting at- 
tempt at a descriptive as well as didactic poem. It is 
in frank imitation of the English classic poets, Pope, 
Denham, Thomson, Goldsmith, but shows some touches 
distinctively American. 

Among the most interesting compositions of the 
Eevolutionary period, are the numerous songs Revoiution- 
and ballads, hundreds of which were written ary Songs 
during the years of the war. Many of these 
were mere doggerel, but some — as such songs of the 
people often are — were characterized by a homely, 
hearty strain, which in spite of crudity bears its own 
appeal, and stirs the passion of men without the aid of 
art. The names of their writers were often unknown 
even in that generation. Sometimes these compositions 
took the form of camp-songs like that to The Volunteer 
Boys (1780): — 

*' Hence with the lover who sighs o'er his wine, 
Chloes and Phillises toasting-, 
Hence with the slave who will whimper and whine, 
Of ardor and constancy boasting. 



76 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

Hence with love's joys, 

Follies and noise, — 

The toast that I give is the Volunteer Boys," etc. 

Sometimes they are religious songs, one of the best 
examples of which is found in The American Soldier s 
Hymn : — 

** 'T is God that girds our armor on, 
And all our just designs fulfils. 
Through Him our feet can swiftly run, 
And nimbly climb the steepest hills. 

" Lessons of war from Him we take, 
And manly weapons learn to wield ; 
Strong bows of steel with ease we break, 
Forced by our stronger arms to yield," etc. 

But more numerous were the narratives in crude and 
vigorous verse of battle, of incident, and of individual 
exploit, such as we find in an anonymous poem on the 
Battle of Trenton (December 26, 1776). The historic 
crossing of the Delaware is mentioned in the opening 
stanza : — 

" On Christmas-day in seventy-six, 
Our ragged troops with bayonets fixed 

For Trenton marched away. 
The Delaware see ! the boats below ! 
The light obscured by hail and snow ! 

But no sign of dismay." 

In each of the six stanzas which compose the song, there 
is some clever touch which reveals the real poetic im- 
pulse — none the less effective because of its artlessness. 

" Great Washington he led us on. 
Whose streaming flag, in storm or sun, 
Had never known disgrace. 

" In silent march we passed the night, 
Each soldier panting for the fight, 
Though quite benumbed with frost." 

The account of the action is very brief, the surprise, 



FRANCIS HOPKINSON 77 

the victory, the trophies of battle are tersely described, 
and the song closes in conventional style : — 

" Now, brothers of the patriot bands, 
Let 's sing deliverance from the hands 

Of arbitrary sway. 
And as our life is but a span, 
Let 's touch the tankard while we can, 

In menaory of that day." 

One of the best naval ballads of the time was The 
Yankee Man of War, a stirring record of an exploit 
in 1778, wherein the bravery of John Paul Jones is 
enthusiastically celebrated. Its unknown author writes 
with the precision of one well versed in sea-craft, and 
like an eye-witness of the incident. 

" ' Out booms ! out booms ! ' our skipper cri^d, 

' out booms and give her sheet.' 
And the swiftest keel that was ever launched 

shot ahead of the British fleet. 
And a-midst a thundering shower of shot 

with stun'sails hoisting away, 
Down the North Channel Paul Jones did steer 

just at the break of day." 

Scores of these spirited little lyrics may be read in the 
collections of Kevolutionary songs.^ The patriotic fervor 
of the singer is often more impressive than the inspira- 
tion of his muse, and yet there are not a few poems in the 
group which may claim a place in our national literature. 
The humorous ballad on The Battle of the Kegs 
illustrates another phase of this patriotic act- 
ivity in verse. The author of these rollicking Hopkinson, 
lines was Francis Hopkinson, a man promi- ^^3^"®^- 
nent in all the serious and weighty movements of these 
momentous times, yet full of vivacity and an irresistible 

1 See Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Literature, 
vol. iii ; George Cary Eggleston's collection of American War Ballads and 
Lyrics, vol. i ; and Poems of American Patriotism, chosen by J. Brander 
Matthews; also Moore's Songs and Ballads of the American Bevolution 
(1856), and Burton E. Stevenson's Poems of American History (1908). 



78 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

humor whicli frequently broke forth in trenchant satire 
and clever verse. In The Battle of the Kegs^ his irre- 
pressible wit runs merry riot. The incident which in- 
spired the ballad belongs to the beginning of 1778. 
Some Yankee inventor having constructed a sort of 
infernal machine for the purpose, a lot of kegs were 
equipped with the mechanism and charged with powder ; 
these kegs were then sent floating down the Delaware 
toward Philadelphia, where the British force under 
Howe was quartered for the winter. Whether actually 
dangerous or not, these suspicious-looking kegs caused 
great excitement as they came floating by the city and 
provoked a general bombardment from ships and gar- 
rison. No harm resulted to the English from this fleet 
of Yankee invention, but Hopkinson's doggerel rhymes 
which followed appear to have had a most beneficent 
effect upon the Continentals. The ballad proved to be 
the most popular composition of the war period, and its 
influence is thus described by Tyler : — 

" It gave the weary and anxious people the luxury of gen- 
uine and hearty laughter in very scorn of the enemy. To the 
cause of the Revolution it was perhaps worth as much, just 
then, by way of emotional tonic and of military inspiration 
as the winning of a considerable battle would have been." ^ 

Francis Hopkinson's impassioned Camp Ballad 
(1777) exhibits the real lyric power of the poet in his 
serious mood. Columhia^ written by Timothy D wight, 
belongs to the same group of patriotic lyrics. Dwight's 
poem begins with the lines : — 

" Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, 
The queen of the world, and the child of the skies." 

It is not to be confused with the national song Hail 

Columhia^ which was written by Joseph Hopkinson 

(not Francis) in 1798. If popularity were a standard 

^ Tyler's Literary History of the American Revolution, vol. ii, p. 149. 



HALE IN THE BUSH 79 

of excellence, these fervid compositions, along with The 
Battle of the Kegs and The Yankee's Return from 
Camp ("Yankee Doodle"), would have to represent 
the poetic accomplishment of our Revolutionary poets ; 
happily this is not the case. Bold Hawthorne^ the Sur- 
geon's record of the cruise of the " Fair American," 
Captain Hawthorne, 1777, has the homely flavor of an 
honest folk-song, and so has the ballad of Brave Pauld- 
ing and the Spy^ which celebrates the patriotic integ- 
rity of the captor of Major Andre ; but the best of all 
these patriotic compositions is one entitled Hale in the 
Bush, a wonderfully tender and impressive tribute to 
the memory of Nathan Hale, captured and hanged by 
the British as a spy. This remarkable poem merits 
quotation in full. 

HALE IN THE BUSH. 

The breezes went steadily throiagh the tall pines, 
A-saying " oh ! hu-ush ! " a-saying- " oh ! hu-ush ! " 
As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse, 
For Hale in the bush, for Hale in the bush. 

" Keep still ! " said the thrush, as she nestled her young 

In a nest by the road ; in a nest by the road. 
" For the tyrants are near, and with them appear 

What bodes us no good, what bodes us no good." 

The brave captain heard it, and thought of his home 
In a cot by the brook ; in a cot by the brook. 
With mother and sister and memories dear. 
He so gaily forsook, he so gaily forsook. 

Cooling shades of the night were coming apace, 
The tattoo had beat, the tattoo had beat ; 
The noble one sprang from his dark lurking place, 
To make his retreat, to make his retreat. 

He warily trod on the dry rustling leaves, 

As he passed through the wood, as he passed through the wood ; 

And silently gained his rude launch on the shore. 

As she played with the flood, as she played with the flood. 



80 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

The guards of the camp on that dark dreary night, 
Had a murderous will, had a murderous will ; 
They took him and bore him afar from the shore, 
To a hut on the hill, to a hut on the hill. 

No mother was there, nor a friend who could cheer. 
In that little stone cell, in that little stone cell ; 
But he trusted in love from his Father above — 
In his heart all was well, in his heart all was well. 

An ominous owl with his solemn bass voice. 

Sat moaning hard by, sat moaning hard by : 

*' The tyrant's proud minions most gladly rejoice. 

For he must soon die, for he must soon die." 

The brave fellow told them, no thing he restrained, — 
The cruel general ! the cruel general ! — 
His errand from camp, of the ends to be gained, 
And said that was all, and said that was all. 

They took him and bound him and bore him away, 
Down the hill's grassy side, down the hill's grassy side. 
'T was there the base hirelings, in royal array. 
His cause did deride, his cause did deride. 

Five minutes were given, short moments, no more, 
For him to repent, for him to repent. 
He prayed for his mother — he asked not another,— 
To Heaven he went, to Heaven he went. 

The faith of a martyr the tragedy showed. 
As he trod the last stage, as he trod the last stage. 
And Britons will shudder at gallant Hale's blood. 
As his words do presage, as his words do presage. 

" Thou pale king of terrors, thou life's gloomy foe. 
Go frighten the slave, go frighten the slave ; 
Tell tyrants, to you their allegiance they owe — 
No fears for the brave, no fears for the brave ! " 



V. THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. TRANSI- 
TION : POETRY, DRAMA, FICTION, PERIODICAL LITER- 
ATURE. 

Colncidentally with tlie satires, the epics, the songs 
and ballads, which owed their measure of inspiration 



PHILIP FRENEAU 81 

immediately to the spirit of that strenuous time, we 
note also the appearance of a different school of verse 
which meant infinitely more in the development of our 
literary art. 

Among the satirists of the Revolutionary epoch, there 
was none whose pen was readier or sharper pj^^p 
in its thrusts than Philip Freneau ; and Freneau, 
among the poems of the war itself, none holds 
a firmer place in our literature than Freneau's brief 
elegy on the valiant who died at Eutaw Springs. One 
line of this poem was thought worthy of adaptation by 
the author of Marmion.^ But Freneau's strongest claim 
for remembrance lies in a few compositions which mark 
the beginning of nature poetry in America. 

Philip Freneau owed his foreign name to Huguenot 
ancestry, but he was born in New York and was gradu- 
ated, in 1771, at Princeton, where he had been a class- 
mate and room-mate with James Madison. In the early 
part of his career Freneau engaged in commercial 
ventures In the West Indies and made frequent voyages, 
commanding his own vessel. Once (In 1780) he was cap- 
tured by the British and was for several weeks confined 
in an English prison ship in New York harbor. The 
hardships of this experience are rehearsed in a poem 
entitled The British Prison Ship^ filled to the brim 
with the horror and rancor of his suffering. Many 
another fierce broadside did he hurl at the nation's foe, 
until hostilities ceased. After the war, Freneau entered 

1 " They saw their injured country's woe, 
The flaming' town, the wasted field ; 
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe ; 

They took the spear — but left the shield." 

Eutaw Springs. 

" When Prussia hurried to the field, 
And snatched the spear, but left the shield." 

Marmion (Introd. to Canto ui). 



82 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

journalism, but his later years were comparatively in- 
active. Near the close of his eightieth year, on a De- 
cember night, returning to his home from a gathering 
with friends, he lost his way in the snow and fell by 
the road-side ; the next morning he was found dead. 
The compositions which have done most for Freneau's 
fame as a poet belong to his earlier years. In 
Nature these productions, we find the beginning of 
06"^3" genuine nature poetry in America. Here we 
have Freneau's opening lines on The Wild Honey- 
suckle : — 

" Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, 
Hid in this silent, dull retreat, 
Untouched thy honied blossoms blow, 

Unseen thy little branches greet ; 
No roving foot shall crush thee here, 
No busy hand provoke a tear." 

To a Honeybee^ addressed to a wandering rover from 
the hive resting luxuriously on the rim of the poet's 
glass, is written with the same charming simplicity of 
style and with a dainty touch of humor befitting the 
theme. 

*' Welcome ! — I hail you to my glass : 

All welcome, here, you find ; 
Here, let the cloud of trouble pass, 

Here, be all care resigned. 
This fluid never fails to please, 
And drown the griefs of men or bees. 



" Yet take not, oh ! too deep a drink. 

And in this ocean die ; 
Here bigger bees than you might sink, 

Even bees full six feet high. 
Like Pharaoh, then, you would be said 
To perish in a sea of red. 

" Do as you please, your will is mine ; 
Enjoy it without fear, 
And your grave will be this glass of wine, 
Your epitaph — a tear — 



A "CURIOSITY OF LITERATURE" 83 

Go, take your seat in Charon's boat ; 
We '11 tell the hive, you died afloat." 

Of a different tenor are two poems in pensive key : 
The Indian Student and The Indian Burying -ground. 
In all these compositions, we feel the spirit of a true 
poet who loves Nature and responds to her appeals 
spontaneously and without artifice. There had been a 
few previous attempts at this form of treatment in 
American verse, but they had been isolated instances 
and had failed of the excellence attained by Freneau. 
These poems are therefore the more worthy of note. 
The volume which contains these productions appeared 
in 1786 — the same year in which the first volume of 
the poems of Robert Burns was published; and twelve 
years before the Lyrical Ballads introduced William 
Wordsworth as the first recognized champion of sim- 
plicity and naturalness in English verse. 

The Parting Glass is in the lighter mood of the old 
Cavalier Poets. On the Ruins of a Country Inn 
shows the influence of Thomas Gray. In one long 
poem, The House of Nighty Freneau enters the weird 
domain afterward so skillfully worked by Edgar Allan 
Poe. 

A singular example of precocious literary development 
is found in the work of a negro girl, Phillis ^oc^yj^g. 
Wheatley. Brought from Africa at the age of ity oiLit- 
seven or eight, she became a slave in the 
household of a family in Boston. She learned rapidly 
under the guidance of her mistress and began to write 
verse in the conventional style of the English classical 
poets — verse as good as that produced by any of their 
American imitators. A volume of Phillis Wheatley's 
poems was published at London in 1773, the genuine- 
ness of the work being vouched for by prominent people 
in Boston. At the appearance of this volume, Phillis 



84 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

could have been scarcely twenty years of age, her pre- 
cocity marking her development phenomenal. 

The beginnings of dramatic literature in America 
The Drama belong to this same period. Quite early in the 
in America, century English plays had been acted by ama- 
teurs in New York, but it was not until 1752 that a 
professional company had been seen in the colonies pre- 
senting standard plays. In that year, an English troop 
of London players began a series of presentations at 
Williamsburg, Virginia, afterward playing in New York 
and Philadelphia. The Merchant of Venice^ Richard 
III^ and Hamlet were included in their repertory. Two 
or three plays had been written by Americans previous 
to the Revolution — for the most part so-called reading- 
plays. Hugh H. Brackenridge (1748-1816), a class- 
mate and associate with Philip Freneau, afterward 
Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, wrote, 
in 1776, a drama called The Battle of Bunker Hill. 
Brackenridge was then a school-teacher, and the play 
was presented by his pupils. Theatres had been built 
in Philadelphia, New York, Annapolis, and Charleston 
previous to the war. Boston's earliest play-house dates 
from 1794. 

The first American play to be performed by a pro- 
j.^ . fessional company was The Contrast^ written 

American by Royall Tyler (1757-1826). It was pro- 
^^^^'- duced in New York, April 16, 1787. The theme 

of this comedy was patriotic ; a contrast is drawn be- 
tween those who ape foreign fashions and those who 
hold to the plain but wholesome manners of home. In 
this play the Yankee, Jonathan, is introduced effectively 
as a typical character. Tyler was himself a Vermonter of 
versatile talent. He produced other plays, a novel and 
several poems. In 1789, another American comedy was 
produced, — The Father^ or American Shanclyism. 



THE AMERICAN NOVEL 85 

This was the work of William Dunlap (1766-1839) of 
New Jersey. This play, one of some sixty written by 
Dunlap, and the most worthy of them, contains two 
characters modeled after the famous Uncle Toby and 
Corporal Trim of Lawrence Sterne's whimsical novel, 
Triatrajn Shandy. Dunlap became a theatrical man- 
ager, and later wrote 2i History of the American Theatre 
(1832). He was also the biographer of the first Amer- 
ican novelist of note, Charles Brockden Brown. 

Contemporaneous with the appearance of the drama 
in our literature, we have to record also the „^ 
entrance of the novel. The first native exper- American 
iment in this form of fiction, modeled — very °^®' 
distantly — after Richardson's Pamela^ was entitled 
The Poioer of Sympathy. This work has a curious his- 
tory. Madam Sarah Went worth Morton, its author, a 
member of one of New England's most aristocratic fam- 
ilies, had won provincial fame as a " poetess," under the 
sentimental name of " Philenia " ; she had, indeed, been 
described by one distinguished admirer as " The Ameri- 
can Sappho." For her plot, Mrs. Morton utilized a mis- 
erable scandal which had blighted her own family life, 
and made the identity of her principal characters so 
obvious that the persons most interested bought the 
entire edition from the publisher — and The Pov^er 
of Sympathy^ thus incontinently suppressed (1789),. 
was never published in that generation.^ 

Two other New England women appeared thus early 
in print with narratives of somewhat similar sort 
" founded on fact." Susanna H. Rowson, an English 
lady who had established a school for girls in Boston, 
was the author of a very popular novel, Charlotte 

1 Pamela (1740), by Samuel Richardson, is commonly regarded as 
the first novel of common life and manners in Eng-lish literature. 

2 An edition of this novel was published at Boston, in 1894. 



86 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

Temiile, a Tale of Trutli (1790), and of other novels, 
including a sequel, Lucy Temj)le^ which was published 
in 1828. 

Hannah W. Foster wrote, in 1797, The Coquette ; 
or^ The History of Eliza Wharton^ a Novel Founded 
on Fact. Mrs. Foster was the wife of a clergyman and 
wrote, as did Mrs. Rowson, with a moral purpose. In 
both these novels, the theme of indiscretion and deser- 
tion is treated in the sentimental, didactic style which 
characterized many of the English novelists of the same 
period. The popularity of these two stories outlasted 
their own generation. Pilgrimages were made by sen- 
timental readers to the graves of both these heroines ; 
and the old slate headstone in the ancient graveyard 
in Salem, where the real " Eliza Wharton " is buried, 
has been all but chipped away by relic-hunters. 

Hugh H. Brackenridge, already mentioned as the 
author of an early American play, wrote a satirical 
romance called Modern Chivalry ; or^ The Adventures 
of Captain Farrago and Teague URegan^ his Servant^ 
the first part of which appeared in 1792, the second, 
in 1806 ; and the playwright Royall Tyler also entered 
the lists with a two-volume narrative entitled The Al- 
gerine Captive.^ in 1799. Neither of these works, how- 
ever, can be regarded as possessing the interest or 
importance of Mrs. Kowson's and Mrs. Foster's " tales 
of truth " in the annals of American fiction. It is with 
Charlotte Temple and The Coquette^ that the novel of 
manners appears. 

While these earliest examples of the American novel 
Charles are of interest historically, — and interesting 
Brockden mainly on that ground alone, — there appeared 
1771-1810. before the close of the century one or two 
essays in prose fiction which possess decided merit on 
the ground of technical construction and on that of 



CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN 87 

genuine narrative power. These were the early ro- 
mances of Charles Brockden Brown. 

Brown was a native of Philadelphia, where he re- 
ceived his education. He chose the profession of the 
law and prepared himself for practice ; but the duties 
of the legal calling were wholly uncongenial, and the 
effect of this trying situation was soon apparent in de- 
pression of spirits and impaired health. At last, he 
forsook the law for the profession of literature, and is 
deserving of some distinction as the first American to 
make deliberately so dangerous an experiment. He 
removed to New York and formed associations with a 
few men of literary tastes comprising the members 
of the " Friendly Club," among whom was William 
Dunlap, the future biographer of the novelist. It was 
a period of considerable mental excitement in both 
Europe and America. Revolutionary forces were vigor- 
ously alive. New theories affecting political and social 
relations were promulgated daily. As an essayist on 
moral as well as literary themes, Brown had written 
copiously before his abandonment of the law; he had 
been a diligent student ; his mind was even abnormally 
active, and he wrote with a style noticeably strong and 
vivid. In 1797, Charles Brockden Brown published his 
first volume, Alcuin: a Dialogue on the Rights of 
Women, It did not meet with success. But following 
this, Brown produced in rapid succession a series of re- 
markable novels which won for their author contem- 
porary distinction, and, historically regarded, hold a 
very notable place in American literature. The titles 
of these novels are: Wieland; or, the Transformation; 
Ormond ; or, the Secret Witness ; Arthur Mervyn ; 
Edgar Huntley ; Clara Howard; and Jane Talbot, 
The first of these was published in 1798 ; the remainder, 
before the end of 1801. Besides writing his novels, 



88 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

Brown was also conducting a magazine, Tlie Monthly 
Magazine and American Hevieio^ which consisted al- 
most entirely of his own contributions. Near the close 
of 1800, the novelist returned to Philadelphia, where 
he founded The Literary Magazine and American 
Megisier^ and where he continued to write miscellaneous 
articles on political, biographical, and historical sub- 
jects until his death at the age of thirty-nine. He suf- 
fered from the attacks of consumption due presumably 
to the early undermining of his health, and aggravated 
by the intensity and laboriousness of his life. 

The novels of Charles Brockden Brown are seldom 
read to-day ; but they attracted general attention at the 
time of their appearance, and won the approbation of 
some European writers, including Scott and Shelley, 
who gave them a high rank. Both Poe and Hawthorne 
were undoubtedly influenced by them. They reflected 
strongly the characteristics of the romantic school of 
fiction that arose in Germany and England near the 
close of the eighteenth century. The plots of these 
stories are psychological and are based on mystery; 
the incomprehensible and the horrible are invoked to 
stimulate interest. There is a marked solemnity of 
diction which reinforces the peculiar style of the narra- 
tive, and the emotions are played upon in the senti- 
mental manner of the romance then in vogue abroad. 
The general tone of the narratives may be properly 
described as morbid, — a tone which pervades the 
series as a whole. 

In Wieland^ the principal characters are introduced 
under the spell of a mysterious catastrophe suggesting 
the attack of some malignant force which may be the 
product of electricity, or of spontaneous combustion. 
Mysterious voices are heard which are finally accounted 
for by the confession of an ill-disposed ventriloquist. 



PERIODICALS 89 

A dreadful crime is committed by a person insane with 
religious mania ; and disaster overwhelms an entire 
family through the operation of these mysterious 
agencies which, at the last, are but unsatisfactorily ex- 
plained. In Arthur Mervyn^ the scene is laid in Phil- 
adelphia during an epidemic of yellow fever (1793), 
and the ghastly details of that visitation are faithfully 
reproduced. In Edgar Huntley^ there is an attempt at 
murder committed during temporary madness; the 
madman afterwards commits suicide while the intended 
victim escapes. The principal personage in the story is 
a somnambulist. 

These novels of Charles Brockden Brown are not un- 
impressive in their realistic portrayal of horrible and 
loathsome scenes, and in their appeal to the sentiments 
of curiosity and terror ; they fail in characterization 
and in life-likeness. Yet they compare not unfavorably 
with contemporary English narratives like William 
Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794) and Mrs. Eadcliffe's 
Mysteries of Udoli^ho (1794) or Matthew Lewis's The 
Monk (1795). A significant feature of Brown's work 
is the fact that he always made use of American scenes ; 
in Edgar Huntley^ he employed the incidents of Indian 
warfare to good purpose. 

In connection with this account of our literary be- 

mnnins^s in the eighteenth century, we must 

4.ir-i^ 4.il v.. £ Periodicals, 

not tail to note the earliest appearance of 

periodical literature in America — a very important 

phase of intellectual life. Newspapers came first, and 

were established in the following order : — 

1704. The Boston News Letter (continued to 1776). 
1719. The Boston Gazette (first issue, Dec. 21). 
1719. The American Weekly Mercury (Phila., Dec. 
22). 



90 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

1721. 7^e New England Courant (Boston). 

1725. The New Fork Gazette. 

1728. The Pennsylvania Gazette (Franklin's). 

Before the end of 1765, there were in the colonies 
forty-three newspapers, nearly all weeklies, and in 
comparison with the modern journal very diminutive 
affairs. News was not abundant and not often up to 
date. Prominence was given to correspondence from 
England. Letters from local politicians, anecdotes, es- 
says, poems, lampoons, etc., were introduced. In the 
latter part of the century, some literary value was 
claimed by the newspapers. It was not until 1784 that 
the daily newspaper began to appear — r with the found- 
ing of The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Adver- 
tiser^ at Philadelphia. 

Two or three literary magazines were established in 
the colonies previous to the Revolution. Such were 
The General Magazine., started in Philadelphia, in 
1741, and The American Magazine and Historical 
Chronicle^ established in Boston in 1743. Tlie Royal 
American Magazine^ started in Boston in 1774, was 
one of the most elaborate of these publications ; few of 
them survived more than a few months. One interest- 
ing periodical of the Revolutionary period was The 
Pennsylvania Magazine^ edited by Thomas Paine. Its 
career began in January, 1775, and ended gloriously 
with the printing of the Declaration of Independence, in 
July, 1776. Hugh H. Brackenridge edited The United 
States Magazine at Philadelphia in 1779. The Boston 
Magazine appeared — and disappeared — in 1785. But 
it was not until the beginning of the new century that 
anything like a substantial existence was enjoyed by 
any periodical of this class. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 91 

Tyler's History of American Literature during Colonial 
Times and his Literary History of the A7nerican suggestions 
Revolution (2 vols.) will serve as authoritative ior Reading, 
background for this chapter. Stedman and Hutchinson's 
Library of American Literature, vols. 2, 3, and 4, supplies 
selections from all the writers enumerated here. The period 
of the eighteenth century is admirably covered in American 
Literature {Literatures of the World) by W. P. Trent. For 
more personal reference, see The Samuel Sewall Papers — 
Mass. Hist. Soc. Col. — 1879 ; also N. H. Chamberlain's Sam- 
uel Sewall and the World he lived in (Boston, 1897), the 
life of Jonathan Edwards {American Religious Leaders) 
by Alexander Allen, and Austin's Philip Freneau. Brief 
authoritative biographies of Franklin, Patrick Henry, Sam- 
uel Adams, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Washing- 
ton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Jay, and Madison are included in 
the American Statesmen Series. Selections from the Revo- 
lutionary orators will be found in the third volume of The 
Library of Oratory, and in volume eight of The World's 
Famous Orations. Illustrations of the Revolutionary verse 
are accessible in Stevenson's Poems of American History ; 
Moore's Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution and 
in American War Ballads, edited by George Cary Eggleston. 
The best poems of Freneau are to be found in Sted man's 
American Anthology (Houghton Mifflin Co.). The Famil- 
iar Letters of John Adams and his Wife Abigail Adams, 
edited by Charles Francis Adams, are an especially interesting 
record of the period, also Scudder's Men and Manners in 
America One Hundred Years Ago. There are numerous 
biographies of Franklin : Morse's Life in the American 
Statesmen Series has been cited ; that by McMaster in the 
American Men of Letters Series is excellent. A larger bio- 
graphy in two volumes is the Life and Times of Benjamin 
Franklin, by James Parton. Of course Franklin's own Auto- 
biography is indispensable. The most recent authoritative 
edition of the complete writings of Franklin is that edited 
by Albert H. Smyth in ten volumes, now published in most 
convenient form, for $15.00 (the Eversley Edition, Macmil- 



92 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

Ian). Besides Cooper's The Spy and The Pilot, there are sev- 
eral recent novels which may well be read as illustrating the 
life of the colonies in the eighteenth century ; among these 
are Lewis Rand, by Mary Johnston, Hugh Wynne, by Dr. 
Weir Mitchell, Janice Meredith, by Paul Leicester Ford, 
and Richard Carvel, by Winston Churchill. Tlie student 
should include in his reading at least one of the novels of 
Charles Brockden Brown (reprinted in Philadelphia, by David 
McKay, 1889). 

Chapter 1 of McMaster's History of the People of the 
United States will be found most interesting in its discussion 
of social conditions in America during the century and at the 
close of the Revolution. Read especially the sections upon 
the minister and the schoolmaster. 

Recent and important h Heralds of American Literature, 
— Annie Russell Marble (University of Chicago Press, 
1907). It contains chapters on Francis Hopkinson, Freneau, 
Trumbull, The Hartford Wits, William Dunlap, and Charles 
Brockden Brown ; also Life and Poems of Philip Freneau, 
by F. L. Pattee (Princeton Historical Association). 



CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW 



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CHAPTER III 

THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 

I. The New Literature: The Knickerbocker Group. 
II. Washington Irving: 1783-1859. 

III. James Fenimore Cooper: 1789-1851. 

IV. William Cullen Bryant: 1794-1878. 

I. THE NEW LITERATURE. — NEW YORK AND THE 
KNICKERBOCKER GROUP. 

With the turn of the century, our young republic 
entered upon an era of expansion and development 
which can be described only as marvelous. The rapid 
progress in the settlement of the West, the influx of 
foreign immigration, the growth of the larger cities, 
extension of transportation systems by construction of 
canals and government roads, application of the new 
inventions employing the power of steam in river navi- 
gation and on railroads, — these features of American 
progress during the first fifty years in our first com- 
pleted century of national existence can be here but 
thus briefly summarized. It is unnecessary to attempt 
a full historical outline of that period of growth and 
change except to note that coincidentally with this ex- 
pansive period of material prosperity and growth, our 
national literature entered upon what we may not inaptly 
term its golden age — the age of its best essayists, nov- 
elists and poets, our real American men of letters. 

We have traced the slow steps of literary effort re- 
corded in the several colonies to the close of their ex- 



THE KNICKERBOCKER GROUP 95 

istence as colonies ; and, immediately after the period 

of revolution, we liave recognized the new „, ,^ , ,^ 

,-,,.1 c .. . . . Birth ol the 

and fresh impulse or creative imagination in New 

the little group of simple nature-poems by ^^^®'^*^^®- 
Philip Freneau, and imaginative power of somewhat 
differing type in the sombre but not altogether unreal 
romances of Charles Brockden Brown. But Freneau 
and Brown are only heralds of coming achievements ; 
of the appearance of a literature national in scope and 
of importance sufficient to command recognition by the 
people of England and the Continent, and possessed of 
an artistic excellence felt and enjoyed by all. 

There were evidences of literary activity in Boston, 
in Philadelphia, and in New York. Little groups of 
literati^ as they liked to call themselves, mightily inter- 
ested in the development of a national literature, gave 
an atmosphere that was helpful to literary effort ; and 
they themselves accomplished what could be accom- 
plished by interest, patriotism, and industry when 
joined with talent, modest if not mediocre. For 
some reason. New York took precedence over « y k 
Boston and Philadelphia in these first decades 
of the nineteenth century and not only sheltered a 
coterie of enthusiastic, congenial comrades of the pen, 
whose lively essays in both prose and verse provoked 
the humor of the town, but pushed into the light of 
more than local fame the names of Paulding, Halleck, 
Drake, and Dana ; and before the quarter mark in the 
century was reached had produced two of the century's 
greatest writers, Irving and Cooper. These are the 
Knickerbocker writers, so called in deference to the old 
Dutch traditions of Manhattan, the spirit of which was 
directly inherited by most of them, and the influence of 
which appeared to some extent in their work. In 1825, 
the poet Bryant came to live in New York, and his 



THE NEW LITERATURE 97 

name is therefore grouped with those aLeady men- 
tioned, although not a native of the state. He was, 
however, of their generation and, like Halleck and 
Dana, an adopted son of New York. 

The significance of these first decades of the nine- 
teenth century in their relation to the beginnings of 
the new literature will appear when we note the dates 
of the following events. It was in 1807 that the Ir- 
vings, together with their friend Paulding, published 
the first of the anonymous Salmagundi papers ; in 
1809, appeared the humorous masterpiece, the Knick- 
erhocher History of New Yorh. In 1817 it was that 
the editors of the North American Revieio — itself a 
publication only two years old — printed Bryant's 
great poem Thanatopsis and his Inscription for the 
Entrance to a Wood. Irving's Sketch-Book^ appearing 
in 1819, established that writer's place permanently in 
the leadership of American letters. In 1821, Cooper 
published his second novel — and first success — The 
Spy ; and that same year was further signalized in a 
literary way by the printing at Boston of Br3^ant's 
first volume of verse. By 1825, Irving had added 
Bracehridge Hcdl and Tales of a Traveller to his ear- 
lier volumes ; Cooper had written The Pioneers and 
The Pilot. Bryant had published among additional 
poems The Yelloio Violet^ To a Waterfowl, Green 
Piver, A Winter Piece, and A Hymn to Death. 

In comparison with the works of contemporary Brit- 
ish writers, this brief list of American publications ap- 
pears modest indeed ; for by 1825 Wordsworth, 
Coleridge, and Southey had produced all that 
was characteristic of their work ; Keats had died in 
1821, Shelley in 1822, and Byron in 1824 ; Scott had 
written the last of the Waverley novels; Tom Moore 
had reached the height of his popularity ; Charles 



98 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Lamb had published the first series of the Essays of 
Elia ; De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium- 
Eater had appeared in 1821 ; and Macaulay's first 
essay, that on Milton^ was printed in 1825. And yet, 
although meagre when brought thus in comparison with 
the literature of the mother-land, this beginning of our 
national literature is after all not so insignificant as 
it may seem ; it was a beginning, and the question 
once derisively put in 1820, by Sidney Smith, a witty 
Englishman — " Who reads an American book ? " — 
could now be answered, in 1825, affirmatively by many 
of his countrymen. Before considering in detail the 
work of the three prominent Americans in this group, 
let us note briefly some . of the minor authors who are 
associated with them. 

James Kirke Paulding was a typical member of the 
James K Knickerbocker group ; he was of Dutch de- 
Pauiding, scent and made good use of the Dutch tradi- 
tions in his most successful work, a novel, 
published in 1831, entitled The Dutchman's Fireside, 
A relative by marriage of William Irving, Paulding 
was early associated with Washington Irving and his 
brother, William, in the production of the humorous 
Salmagundi papers which appeared in 1807. Subse- 
quently Paulding undertook, alone, a new series of the 
Salmagundi^ which came out in 1819-20. During the 
period of the War of 1812, he produced two clever 
satires directed at the British navy — one of these. The 
Lay of the Scotch Fiddle^ being a parody upon Scott's 
Lay of the Last Minstrel, In 1818, he published The 
Backicoodsman^ a metrical narrative of frontier life in 
six books — not a strong performance. Paulding was 
altogether overshadowed in a literary way by Irving 
and Cooper, both of whom he attempted to follow. He 
wrote considerable verse, nothing of which attains to 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK 99 

excellence, and of his novels three only call for men- 
tion : Koningsmarhe^ the long Finne^ dealing with the 
Swedish settlements (1823), The Dutehmaiis Fireside^ 
a study of old Dutch life along the Hudson (1831), and 
Westward Ho I a tale of Kentucky (1832). Paulding 
was also the author of a popular life of Washington, 
published in 1835. He served as Secretary of the Navy 
under Van Buren. 

One of the most energetic members of this New York 
coterie was Fitz-Greene Halleck, a descend- ^^^ 
ant of the apostle, John Eliot. Halleck was Haiieck, 
born in Guilford, Connecticut, and in 1811 ^^°~^^^^- 
came to New York and was employed in a banking- 
house as clerk. He later entered the office of John Jacob 
Astor, who at his death left Halleck an annuity of forty 
pounds. Halleck was a poet from his youth, and three 
or four of his compositions are not likely to slip from 
the memory of American readers so long as there are 
schoolboys to declaim the stirring lines of his Marco 
Bozzaris^ or men to quote by the graves of their friends 
his simple and tender poem, On the Death of Drake. 

Oi Halleck's poems, three are considered notable: 
Alnwick Castle (1827), Burns (1827), and Marco Boz- 
zarls (1825). The strength of the poet is in these com- 
positions ; but perhaps this is surpassed by the pathos 
and sincerity of the beautiful elegy on Drake — 

" Green be the turf above thee, 
• Friend of ray better days ! 

None knew thee but to love thee, 
Nor named thee but to praise." 

A long poem, Fanny^ in the style of Byron's Beppo^ 
written in 1819, was popular at the time, but has fallen 
into oblivion. Halleck retired on his annuity in 1849, 
returned to his old home in Connecticut and there spent 
the remainder of his days. Upon the eightieth anniver- 



100 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

sary of his birth, a monument erected by his townspeople 
over his grave v^^as dedicated to his memory — the first 
honor of the kind bestowed upon an American poet. 

The association of Halleck and Drake in the most inti- 
mate of friendships is one of the pleasant in- 
Drake, cidents of our literary history. Joseph Rodman 
1795-1820. j)j,g^]^g ^^g born in New York, became a stu- 
dent of medicine, wrote but a brief amount of verse, — 
although that was of a high quality, — and died at 
twenty-five. " There will be less sunshine for me here- 
after," said. Halleck, " now that Joe is gone." 

The two poets joined in contributing to the New York 
Evening Post a series of anonymous poems, under the 
general title of The Croakers. These appeared in 1819 ; 
they were light, satiric, often personal in aim, and 
capital exami3les of what is frequently called " society 
verse." They excited a great deal of comment at the 
time, and are said to have been a subject of conversation 
in drawing-rooms, book-stores, and coffee-houses on 
Broadway and throughout the city. One of the best 
poems in the series was Drake's The American Flag, 
of which the concluding lines — 

" Forever float that standard sheet ! 

Where hreathes the foe but falls hefore us, 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ? " 

— were the suggestion of Halleck. 

Drake's principal composition is a long but graceful 
poem, full of charm and animated by a most poetical 
fancy, entitled The Culprit Fay. It was written in 
1816, and grew out of a discussion in the group of poets 

— Cooper being with them at the time — as to the pos- 
sibility of drawing from American streams poetical 
inspiration like that found in the historic and legend- 
haunted rivers of Scotland. Drake affirmed that it 



RICHARD HENRY DANA 101 

could be done; and in three days, it is said, he pro- 
duced his brilliant poem, the scene of which is laid in 
the Highlands of the Hudson. Although written pre- 
vious to the appearance of Irving's Sketch-Booh^ the 
poem was not published until 1835. 

Richard flenry Dana was born in Boston, and was 
one of the associate editors of the North Amer- Richard 
lean JievieWj when Bryant's early poems were J®"^ 
accepted for that publication. In 1821, he 1787-1879. 
began in New York to publish a new magazine, The 
Idle Man^ in which Bryant's poems continued to appear. 
When Bryant arrived in New York and took his first 
editorial position in charge of the New York Review^ 
in 1825, he included Dana's poem, The Dying Raven^ 
along with Halleck's Marco Bozzaris^ in the first issue 
of that magazine. Mr. Dana did not produce many 
poems. A volume, entitled The Buccaneer^ and Other 
JPoems, was published in 1827. One lyric. The Little 
Beach-Bird^ has found a permanent place. It is inter- 
esting to note that the poet was one of several descend- 
ants of Anne Bradstreet to attain some distinction in 
verse. The larger part of his long life was lived in re- 
tirement, and his influence in the development of our 
literature was perhaps strongest indirectly in his criti- 
cism, and in his personal association with his literary 
friends. His son, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-82), 
is even more widely known than his father, as the 
author of the popular narrative. Two Years before the 
Mast (1840). 

Among the minor poets belonging to this period of 
fresh beginnings, several call for mention ^^^^^ 
who were not directly in association with Minor 
the Knickerbocker group. John Pierpont 
(1785-1866), a native of Connecticut and later a Unita- 
rian clergyman in Boston, was the author of the spirited 



102 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Warre7i's Address^ and of the poem, The Pilgrim Po- 
thers. His Airs of Palestine^ and Other Poems was 
published first in 1816. James Gates Percival (1795- 
1857), a man of remarkable versatility, also Connecticut 
born, was a physician, a geologist, and a linguist. He 
wrote fluently — although little of his work is familiar 
now. The Coral Grove is one of his brightest composi- 
tions. His first volume of poems, Prometheus^ appeared 
in 1820. Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865), born 
at Norwich, Connecticut, and for many years head of 
a famous select school for girls, which she established 
at Hartford in 1814, was a pioneer in the cause of 
higher education for women. She was a prolific writer, 
the author of fifty-three volumes in prose and verse. 
Her first volume of Moral Pieces appeared in 1815. 
Emma H. Willard (1787-1870), another Connecticut 
woman who became famous as an educator, — she con- 
ducted the Troy Female Seminary 1821 to 1838, — 
published a volume of poems in 1830, in which was 
included the well-known song. Pocked in the Cradle 
of the Deep, (xeorge Morris (1802-64), who was the 
author of many poems of sentiment popular in his day, 
is now remembered for only one — Woodman., Spare 
that Tree. Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842) is like- 
wise remembered as the author of one song — The 
Old Oaken Bucket (1826). John Howard Payne 
(1791-1852), whose name is immortalized because of 
his Home., Sweet Home^ was an actor and writer of 
plays. He was born in New York and lived a wander- 
ing life. His tragedy, Brutus (1818), was his most 
successful drama. The opera, Claris the Maid of Milan^ 
in which occurs the famous song, was written in Paris, 
in 1823, and produced at Covent Garden, London. 
Payne was United States Consul at Tunis from 1841 
until his death. In 1883, his remains were removed to 



OTHER MINOR POETS 103 

Washington, and there interred. Francis Scott Key 
(1779-1843) wrote The Star- Spancjled Banner in 
1814. Key was detained as a prisoner on board a 
British man-of-war during the bombardment of Fort 
McHenry ; all night he watched the engagement with 
keenest anxiety, and in the morning wrote the words 
of his song. It was printed immediately and to the air 
of AnacreoJi in Heaven was sung all over the land. 

nother national anthem, America^ was written, in^- 
1832, by Rev. Samuel F. Smith (1808-1905). The" 
name of Washington Allston (1778-1843) should be 
included in this group, for the most distinguished of 
our earlier American painters was also a leader in 
literary culture and the author of numerous graceful 
poems. James Abraham Hillhouse (1789-1841), of 
New Haven, was one of the earliest of Americans to 
attempt the poetic drama on the lines of Byron and 
Shelley. His Z^ramas appeared in 1839. Charles Fenno 
Hoffman (1806-84), founder of the Knicherhocher 
llagazme in 1833, was the author of light and brilliant 
verse. His career was closed by insanity in 1849. 

In/<??)ntemporary estimation, at least, no other member 
of the New York group, during the thirties and forties, 
quite equalled Nathaniel Parker Willis. He n.p.wiius, 
was born in Portland, Maine, was graduated 1806-67. 
from Yale College in 1827, and served his apprentice- 
ship as a man of letters in Boston. After his removal to 
New York he was associated with George P. Morris as 
editor of the JVew York Mirror, In 1844 he made a 
place on the Mirror for Poe. It was in that paper that 
Tlie leaven was published (January, 1845).* During 
his visits to England and the continent, Willis wrote 
for the Mirror or the Home Journal lively sketches 
of picturesque scenes and notable people ; these were 
gathered in Pencillings hy the Way (1835, 1844) and 

1 See page 208. 



104 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Loiterings of Travel (1840). He wrote two plays, 
also, Blanca Visconti (1837) and Tortesa^ the Usurer 
(1839). The Sacred Poems (1843) represent his most 
worthy accomplishment in verse. 

II. WASHINGTON IRVING: 1783-1859. 

First among American writers to obtain universal 
recognition abroad, our first true literary artist and our 
earliest " classic," is Washington Irving. If some few 
among our earlier pioneers in letters had already de- 
tected in American soil the germs of a native literature, 
it is Irving to whom belongs the honor of successfully 
developing those germs in works which still preserve 
their freshness, their delicacy, and their charm. To 
the inspiration of native themes, Irving owed much of 
his ample success. 

Washington Irving was born in the city of New York, 
Family April 3, 1783. It was the year which marked 
and Birth, the end of the long struggle for liberty and 
the beginning of peace. The British troops evacuated 
the city and the Continental forces assumed possession. 
"Washington's work is ended," said Mrs. Irving, "and 
the child shall be named after him." Some six years 
later, we are told, when the first president returned 
to New York, then the seat of government, a Scotch 
maid-servant of the family finding herself and the child 
by chance in the presence of Washington, presented 
the lad to him. " Please, your honor," said Lizzie, all 
aglow, " here 's a bairn was named after you." And the 
Father of his Country gravely laid his hand upon the 
head of his future biographer and blessed him. 

The household in William Street was comfortably 
well-to-do. The father, William Irving, a Scotchman, 
born in the Orkney Islands, and until his marriage an 
officer upon a vessel plying between Falmouth and 
New York, was now engaged in the hardware trade. 



WASHINGTON IRVING 105 

He was a man of strict integrity, rather severe in his 
attitude toward life, with a good deal of the old strict 
Covenanter spirit in his make-up. He took little inter- 
est in amusements, required that at least one of the 
half-holidays in every week should be piously employed 
with the catechism, and saw to it that his children 
were well grounded in sound Presbyterian doctrine. 
The mother, daughter of an English curate, was far 
less rigid in her views and more vivacious in tempera- 
ment. Needless is it to say that the future chronicler of 
the Knickerbocker legends resembled the mother more 
closely than the father in his inheritance of spirits. 
Full of drollery and mischief, the boy ran merry riot, 
sometimes a source of perplexity even to the more in- 
dulgent parent, who once was heard to exclaim : " O 
Washington, if you were only good ! " He loved music 
and delighted in the theatre, whither, in spite of his fa- 
ther's prejudices, the boy often betook himself, secretly, 
in company with his young comrade, Paulding. 

Irving's training was desultory, and his schooling 
ended at sixteen. This cutting short of the 
school-days was due to the state of his health 
in these early years, which forbade confinement or close 
association with books. Yet he read, and read intelli- 
gently, becoming familiar with the best, especially 
books of travel, voyages, and adventure. In his rambles 
about the city — for he lived much out of doors — he 
oftenest turned toward the docks, dreamily wandering 
among the piers and along the waterside with mind 
apparently stirred by the sight of the shipping and the 
romantic suggestions of foreign lands. Up the Hudson, 
also, he wandered — into the Highlands and over all 
the country-side, until the suburbs of Manhattan and 
the picturesque region of the Catskills were familiar 
ground. 



106 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Nevertheless young Irving settled down more or less 
Law vs. seriously to a professional career. Upon leav- 
Literature. jjjg school, he began the study of law. Tradi- 
tion has it, however, that Irving's reading was more 
upon works of general literature than on those con- 
cerned with legal practice. His excursions continued. 
In 1798, he thoroughly explored that idyllic region of 
Sleepy Hollow, afterward immortalized in the Sketch- 
book. In 1800, he took an extended trip up the Hud- 
son and into the Mohawk Valley. Although he had 
become in 1802 a law clerk in the office of Josiah Hoff- 
man, he was at least to outward appearance a good deal 
of an idler. He had always been fond of society and 
entered with zest into its pleasures. In the wide circle 
of his friendships, he was a conspicuous and favorite 
figure, admired for his genial, happy gayety, and for 
his warmth and kindliness of heart. His first contri- 
butions to literature were made at this time. In 1802, 
he published in the Morning Chronicle^ a paper just 
established by his elder brother, Peter Irving, a series 
of letters signed "Jonathan Oldstyle." These papers 
were in frank imitation of the Spectator and Tatler 
essays, full of boyish humor, and directed with the au- 
dacity of youth at some of the visible follies of the day. 
In 1804, Washington Irving was sent abroad by his 
_. brothers, who were anxious over the condi- 

European tion of his health. On this first visit, Irving 
ourney. ^^^ absent a year and a half. He touched at 
the Mediterranean ports and incidentally enjoyed the 
experience of a real capture by pirates. He sojourned 
four months in Paris, and the same length of time in 
London. He made acquaintance with many distin- 
guished people and drank joyously of the romance of 
the Old World as found in its scenery, its manners, its 
languages, its literature, and its art. The experience 



SALMAGUNDI 107 

was in every way broadening and educational; the 
youth became a man of the world. Pleased and stimu- 
lated as well as restored in health, he returned to 
America early in 1806. 

A year later Irving, together with his intimate friend, 
James K. Paulding, and his brother, William salmagundi, 
Irving, joined in a rollicking bit of literary ^807. 
mystification — the publication at irregular intervals 
of a lively little journal entitled Salmagundis This 
publication appeared anonymously throughout its suc- 
cessful career, which continued from January, 1807, 
to January, 1808, and included twenty numbers. The 
series was modeled upon the periodicals of Addison and 
Steele ; the style was amateurish ; the humor was of a 
coarser type, but it tickled the fancy of its readers from 
the start. Its modest programme was announced in the 
first number. " Our intention is simply to instruct the 
young, reform the old, correct the town, and castigate 
the age." 

Two years later, in December, 1809, appeared Irving's 
first notable work, the famous Knlckerhocher The Knick- 
Hlstory of New York. Its author was now sfg^o^' 
twenty-six years old. He was still unsettled 1809- 
in his plans, although admitted to the bar ; he was not 
attracted to his profession nor likely to make headway 
in its pursuit. The months just preceding had, more- 
over, been saddened by the experience of an over- 
whelming sorrow, and the depression of its shadow was 
not to be relieved for many years. Irving had become 
tenderly attached to the beautiful Matilda Hoffman, 
daughter of the gentleman in whose office he had fol- 
lowed the study of law. She was stricken with fatal ill- 
ness, and with the gradual fading of her life in the 

^ Salmag-Tindi — a mixture ; orig-inally an Italian dish, consisting of 
chopped meat, eggs, anchovies, onions, oil, etc. 



108 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

almost constant presence of her devoted lover, the sun- 
shine seemed to fade from the life of this hitherto light- 
hearted youth. It is a marvel that out of these months 
of doubt and gloom should have come a volume which 
is still recognized as the masterpiece of American humor 
— for as such the Knickerbocker History may fairly be 
ranked. 

This inimitable epic of the doughty Dutch burgh- 
ers of New Amsterdam purports to be the 
piece of serious work of Diedrich Knickerbocker, in 
'*"^°'* whose mystifying personality considerable in- 
terest had been aroused by very ingenious advertise- 
ments preceding the publication of the book. In the 
broadly humorous pages of the narrative, Irving's lively 
imagination runs with reckless abandon. In the golden 
age of the settlement, the renowned Wouter van T wilier 
sits in ominous silence, lost in his doubts and in the 
cloud of smoke rising from his pipe, until he emerges 
from both these hazy envelopments to pronounce judg- 
ment in the affairs of the colony. His successor, Wil- 
liam the Testy, wiry and waspish, in his broad-skirted 
coat with its huge buttons, cocked hat stuck on the back 
of his head, and a cane as high as his chin, storms 
through the city; his soul burning like a vehement 
rushlight in his bosom, inciting him to incessant bick- 
ering and broils. Old Peter Stuyvesant, surnamed 
" the Headstrong," brilliantly clad in brimstone-colored 
breeches, stumps with his wooden leg before his ad- 
miring people and valiantly leads his army against the 
Swedes in that most awful of battles — when " the 
earth shook as if struck by a paralytic stroke — trees 
shrunk aghast, and withered at the sight — rocks bur- 
rowed in the ground like rabbits — and even Christina 
Creek turned from its course, and ran up a hill in 
breathless terror." 



THE KNICKERBOCKER HISTORY 109 

There is greater significance in the appearance of the 
Knickerbocker History of New York than at ^^ ^^^^ 
first appears. From our modern point of view of Knicker- 
itwas the first American book.^ Not only was ^°''^®'* 
it the starting-point of the Knickerbocker tradition, 
but it was pleasing testimony to the fact that even in 
the recently developed civilization of the New World 
material existed which possessed true literary value ; 
and that in the evolution of its artistic spirit America 
had arrived where she might hope to produce works of 
the creative imagination — where her representatives 
might be recognized as men of letters, abroad as well as 
at home. 

While the lively humor of Knickerbocker proved un- 
necessarily irritating to some of the descend- 
ants of the Dutch heroes so cleverly carica- of Knicker- 
tured by Irving, the good-natured laughter of ^°°^®'- 
the historian was understood and heartily echoed by 
most of Irving's contemporaries. In England the His- 
tory was read and applauded. It proved the introduction 
of Irving to the literary circle in which he was soon to 
mingle ; and Sir Walter Scott declared that it was as 
good as the work of Jonathan Swift. He afterward told 
its author that he had read it aloud to his household, 
and that they had laughed over its pages till their sides 
were sore. 

Still Irving remained undecided as to future plans 
of life. Uncongenial though it was, he became in 
a partner with his brothers in the hardware Business, 
business, for the most part attending to the interests 
of the firm outside of New York. He traveled much 
and was a familiar as well as a welcome figure in the 
society of Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore. 
During the war of 1812, he bore himself patriotically 

^ Franklin's Autobiography was not published until 1817. 



110 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

and offered his services to the state. He was in fact 
made governor's aid and military secretary, and was 
addressed as " Colonel." 

In 1815, Washington Irving made his second trip 
to Europe, expecting to be absent but a few 
Second months ; he remained abroad seventeen years. 
Voyage. j^^ ^^g occupied with the business affairs of 
the firm, which were at this time in a bad way; still he 
found time for occasional visits to some of the principal 
towns of England, making congenial acquaintance with 
distinguished persons. It was in 1817 that he paid that 
visit of personal tribute to Walter Scott, which he has 
so charmingly described in the sketch of Abbotsford. 

With the business failure of Irving Brothers in 1818, 
The a crisis came in the personal affairs of the 

Book^" younger brother, and Washington Irving be- 
1819. took himself more seriously to literary effort. 

The Sketch-Booh of Geoffrey Crayon^ Esq.^ was pub- 
lished in America, in 1819. This first series contained 
the first five of the sketches including Rip Van Winkle. 
The completed work appeared in 1820. It proved an 
instant success in America, and with its issue by a 
British publisher that same year Irving's literary fame 
was established. The genial spirit, delicate humor, and 
graceful sentiment, together with its flowing diction, 
placed the Sketch-Book among the best examples of 
this familiar essay type in our literature. Twice in this 
volume does Irving utilize for his sketches material 
drawn from the old Dutch associations of Manhattan 
and the Highlands of the Hudson. In the Legend of 
Sleepy Hollow and Rij) Van Winkle^ we recognize two 
masterpieces, our most popular classics in the field of 
the short story. Among the thirty odd papers which 
comprise the Sketch-Book, there are several conceived in 
the old spirit of the Spectator essays, notably those on 



THE SKETCH-BOOK 111 

The Boars Head Tavern^ Westminster Abbey ^ Rural 
Funerals^ The Pride of the Village^ and The Angler. 
A group of studies dealing with the household pleasures 
of the holiday season at a typical English hall is par- 
ticularly attractive, and is our first introduction to the 
environment which Irving chose as the setting of his 
next book, Bracehridge Hall. 

This volume followed in 1822 ; and two years there- 
after, the third in this series of sketch-books, — „ 

Brace - 
for all are modeled on the same general plan, bridge Hall, 

— The Tales of a Traveller. Irving's best ^®^^' 

work is found among these sketches and tales. The 

influence of Addison and of Goldsmith is ob- „ , 

1-1 1 • 1 M r 1 Tales Ola 

vious in the plan and in many details of this Traveller, 

work, but the originality of Geoffrey Crayon ^®^*' 
is just as evident. The native vein which had been 
worked with such success in Blp Van Winkle was fol- 
lowed almost as successfully in Dolph Heyliger^ and was 
drawn upon in Kidd the Pirate^ The Devil and Tom 
Walker^ and Wolfert Webber, These tales exhibit their 
author as a master in narrative, and are justly regarded 
as our earliest examples of that highly developed form 
of literature — the short story. 

If we choose to group the works of Irving according 
to their themes, it is easy to find an order of Spanish 
division. Following that first group of early ^J^^c^* 
essays, including the Knickerbocker History, 1826-32. 
the Sketch-Book, Bracebridge Hall, and Tales of a 
Traveller (1809-24), we have a well-defined period in 
the author's life during which his interest centres in 
the historical records of Spain. 

In 1826, Irving went to Madrid to make a transla- 
tion of some important historical documents 
Columlms. , . <» i . 

then appearing as extracts from the jour- 
nals of Columbus. Impressed with the richness of 



112 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

this material bearing on the discovery of the New 
World, he determined to write a life of the great navi- 
gator. Thus the author of the Shetch-Book who had 
recounted with such charm the old Dutch traditions of 
his native land, creating for the valley of the Hudson 
an atmosphere of romance which has never vanished, 
became the first among American writers to draw upon 
that store of romantic legend and rich historic chron- 
icle which, from the era of the Moors to that of the 
Discoverer, have given fascination and allurement to 
this poetic and picturesque land of Spain. Besides his 
Life and Voyages of Colunibiis (1828) and the Voy- 
ages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus 
(1831), his most serious undertakings, Irving wrote 
a Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (1829) and 
ipjjg — most attractive of all the Spanish series — 

Aihambra. the Alhamhra (1832). This last volume is 
another " sketch-book." For a period Irving dwelt 
within the walls of this historic structure under the 
spell of its beautiful architecture and its romantic asso- 
ciations ; haunting its marble halls, gazing from lofty 
windows over the surrounding landscape, or pacing at 
evening through its deserted gardens, melodious with 
the song of the nightingale, it is no wonder that his 
imagination kindled in the glow of ancient splendor 
until he wrote in poetic strain of the moonlit nights 
in this enchanted palace. 

In 1829, Irving had been pleasantly surprised by an 
Again In appointment as Secretary of Legation to the 
England, Court of St. James. It had required, how- 
ever, the urjT^ency of his friends to induce him to accept 
the honor. Naturally diffident, he shrank from tlie pub- 
lic responsibilities of a diplomatic position ; moreover, 
several literary projects were engaging his attention. 
However, the post, once assumed, proved agreeable, 



SUNNYSIDE 113 

and until the fall of 1831 he continued in the position. 
It was during these last two years of official routine 
that the series of Spanish volumes was completed. In 
1830, Irving had been awarded one of the two medals 
annually placed by George IV at the disposal of the 
Royal Society of Literature, to be given to authors of 
works of eminent merit. The historian, Hallam, re- 
ceived the other. Shortly thereafter the University of 
Oxford conferred upon the American writer the degree 
of D. C. L. In May, 1832, Irving, who had been long- 
ing for his native land, returned to America, distin- 
guished and admired abroad, to find himself honored 
and beloved by his countrymen at home. 

The home-coming was signalized by a spontaneous 
outburst of hearty welcome which partly ex- ^j^j^^ 
pressed itself in a public banquet tendered Period, 

. 1832—42 

by the city of New York to her own humor- 
ous historian, " the Dutch Herodotus, Diedrich Knick- 
erbocker " — as the recipient was facetiously named in 
a toast. Greatly impressed by the development of his 
country during the years of his absence, Irving made an 
extended tour in the South and the West, pushing out 
into the wild regions of the Pawnee country, on the 
waters of the Arkansas. In his Tour on the Pi^airies 
(1835), the author describes the life of the ranger and 
the trapper as he saw it on this excursion. But the 
characteristic feature of this period in Irving's life is 
his establishment at Sunnyside, near Tarrytown, on the 
Hudson. 

This comfortable little farm of earlier Dutch posses- 
sion has, through its. associations with our 
first conspicuous man of letters, acquired a 
fame almost as general as that attaching to the home 
of Scott. This American Abbotsford, as it is often 
called, was an ideal location for the residence of 



114 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

"Knickerbocker." It was the old estate of the Van 
Tassels. Its comfortable stone cottage was humorously 
said to have been modeled after the cocked hat of 
Peter the Headstrong ; at all events, a whimsical 
weather-cock brought over from Rotterdam perched 
above its pretentious little tower, and ivy grown from 
a slip secured at Melrose Abbey clustered thickly over 
its walls. It was and is a charming place. Sleepy Hol- 
low itself was hard by, and Sunnyside, in its owner's 
lifetime at least, had an atmosphere of retirement and 
seclusion delightfully congenial to the world-weary 
traveler. Here, surrounded by a bevy of nieces whose 
youth and spirits made the old Dutch cottage bright 
with laughter, Irving felt himself finally at home. So 
general and widespread was his popularity, however, 
that many attempts were made to induce Irving's en- 
trance upon a public career. He was urged to accept 
nominations for the office of Mayor of New York, and 
for a seat in Congress ; he was even obliged to decline 
the portfolio of the Secretary of the Navy in President 
Van Buren's cabinet. The charms of Sunnyside and of 
his vivacious household held him fast. 

The literary work of these ten years is compara- 
Literary tively unimportant : A Tour on the Prairies 
Product. (1835), Ahhotsford and Newstead Abbey 
(1835)., Legends of the Conquest of Spain (1836), 
Astoria (1836), Adventures of Captain Bonnemlle 
(1837), and sketches contributed to the Knickerbocker 
Magazine complete the record. A life-long project 
— to write the history of the conquest of Mexico — 
was during this period generously abandoned by Ir- 
ving, when he learned that Prescott was contemplating 
such a plan, — and this after long preparation, and 
while actually engaged upon the early chapters of tlie 
work. 



IRVING'S LAST YEARS 115 

In 1842, Washington Irving was named by Daniel 
Webster, then Secretary of State under «i , . . 
President Tyler, for the post of Minister to Spain, 
Spain. This honor Irving accepted ; although ^^^"'*®- 
v^^ith the regret of departure before him, he was over- 
heard murmuring to himself — " It is hard, — very 
hard ; yet I must try to bear it. God tempers the wind 
to the shorn lamb." 

After four years' residence at Madrid, Irving re- 
turned, once more eager for the quiet retire- ^ast Years 
ment of Sunnyside. In the congenial envi- 1846-59. 
ronment of his home it was now his pleasant lot to 
pass in comfort and in quiet the thirteen years remain- 
ing to him. His Life of Goldsmith (1849), Mahomet 
and his Successors (1850), and his noteworthy Z//e of 
Washington (1855-59) occupied these last years. In 
1855, the sketches contributed some years before to the 
Knicherhocher Magazine were published under the title 
of Wolferfs Roost. Irving's Washington represents 
the most serious labor of his entire career. Depreciated 
by many critics as without historical value, it has been 
praised by others ; its power and charm as a literary 
work have never failed of appreciation. 

These last years of Irviug's life were happy and se- 
rene. There is a picturesque sketch of his per- 
sonal appearance in one of the Easy Chair ^ ^°'**"- 
papers in Harper^ s Magazine ^ which describes the 
author of Knicherhocher " on an autumnal afternoon 
tripping with an elastic step along Broadway, with 
'low-quartered' shoes neatly tied, and a Talma cloak 
— a short garment that hung from the shoulders like 
the cape of a coat. There was a chirping, cheery, old- 
school air in his appearance which was undeniably 

1 By George William Curtis, Harper'' s Magazine, vol. 63, p. 145 
(June, 1881) ; also included in Curtis's Literary and Social Essays. 



116 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Dutch, and most harmonious with the associations of 
his writing. He seemed, indeed, to have stepped out of 
his own books ; and the cordial grace and humor of his 
address, if he stopped for a passing chat, were delight- 
fully characteristic. He was then our most famous man 
of letters, but he was simply free from all self-conscious- 
ness and assumption and dogmatism." 

It is this simplicity, this cheeriness of spirit, this 
native humor and cordial grace of address w^hich most 
distinguish the man in his literary work. He is al- 
ways amiable — a truly lovable soul. For obvious rea- 
sons when we think of the Sketch-Book and of Brace- 
bridge Hall we are reminded of the Spectator essays 
and Sir Roger cle Coverley ; ^ but the spirit of Irving 
was more closely akin to that of Goldsmith than to 
that of Addison. 

" If, however, I can by lucky chance, in these days of 
evil, rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile 
the heavy heart of one moment of sadness ; if I can, now and 
then, penetrate the gathering film of misanthropy, prompt a 
benevolent view of human nature, and make my reader more 
in good-humor with his fellow-beings and himself — surely, 
surely, I shall not then have written entirely in vain." 

Such was the literary aspiration of Washington Ir- 
ving as . expressed in connection with his works which 
are best remembered : an aspiration, perhaps, not the 
most lofty which can impel a writer in the practice of 
his art, — but one altogether worthy, and in its real- 
ization eminently deserving of the appreciation and 
gratitude of mankind. 

Full of years and modestly happy in his fame, Wash- 
ington Irving died at Sunnyside, November 28, 1859. 
He was buried on a little elevation overlooking Sleepy 

^ The works of Joseph Addison. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 117 

Hollow, and commanding a view of the Hudson — so 
intimately connected with his writings and associated 
with his name. 

The writings of Washington Irving are not, in the largest 
sense, great ; but they have the literary qualities suggestions 
that always charm and are always valued. The ior Reading, 
student in his reading of this author will be impressed 
with the gentleness, the geniality, the wholesome enjoyment 
in life, the hearty sympathy with all things human, which 
distinguished the winning personality of the man. He will 
note that the sources of Irving's material are almost en- 
tirely in the past, in history, biography, and tradition ; also 
that the subjects which attracted his attention are romantic. 
His whimsical humor it was that first claimed public recogni- 
tion ; but this was more and more tempered by the delicate 
sentiment which gives to his sketches and tales their finest 
flavor. The mere humorist is without sentiment and is never 
romantic. Irving was an idealist and a lover of romance. 

One's reading of Irving will doubtless begin with the Sketch' 
Book — probably with the world-famous narrative Rip Van 
Winkle. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a companion piece. 
Westminster Abbey should be compared with Addison's Visit 
to Westminster Abbey. Next take the sketches of English 
manners, Christmas, The Stage Coach, Christmas Eve, 
Christmas Day, and The Christmas Dinner. These papers 
will furnish a pleasant introduction to the volume entitled 
Bracebridge Hall, into which the reader may dip at will, by 
no means feeling it necessary to read every sketch. One — 
The Stout Gentleman — should be carefully studied ; it is 
one of Irving's most brilliant essays, and should be appre- 
ciated by the student. The story of Dolph Heyliger, at the 
close of the volume, takes us back to the Dutch burghers of 
Manhattan and the legend-haunted shores of the Hudson. 
The sketch entitled The Author, at the opening of the volume, 
and The Author's Farewell, at its close, should be included 
for the insight they aiford into the personality of Irving him- 
self. The Tales of a Traveller exhibit the writer in his most 



118 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

vivacious mood. Charmingly reminiscent of his visit with Scott, 
is Irving's delightful sketch of Ahbotsford. The Alhambra 
contains some of Irving's most attractive work. The imag- 
inative and poetical qualities of his prose are found preemi- 
nently in this volume. The wonderful charm of his style in 
both narrative and descriptive writing is nowhere more in 
evidence than here. His descriptions of the historic structure, 
its gardens, its spacious courtyards, the orange and lemon 
trees silvery in the radiance of moonlight, its pavilions and 
arcades, the notes of guitar and lovers' serenades, the lulling 
patter of its fountains — these descriptions are more than 
sketches ; they are word-paintings whicli glow with color and 
fitly interpret the spirit of romance which abides in the locality 
and the theme. 

As examples of Irving's more serious historical writing, 
the account of the discovery of land, Book III, chapter iv, in 
the Life of Columbus, and of the landing of the discoverer, 
Book IV, chapter i, are especially suggested. 

For illustrations of this author's humor in its most rollick- 
ing vein, the student is referred to the Knickerbocker His- 
tory, Book III, chapter i, which contains the description of 
Wouter Van Twiller, and Book V, chapters i and viii, wherein 
the character of Peter the Headstrong is introduced and the 
account given of the famous battle between the Dutch and 
the Swedes at the taking of Fort Christina. 

In reading Irving, the student may feel assured that he is 
giving his time to a writer who is not only a prince among 
entertainers, but one who may well serve as a model of prose 
style. As a master of English, Irving is well-nigh incompara- 
ble among American authors; certainly, for ease, fluency, 
vivacity, grace, and elegance he is yet unsurpassed. 

The authoritative biography of Washington Irving is the 

Life, by Pierre M. Irvinsf. In the American Men 
BlogTaphl- J ^ J _ » 

cai and of Letters Series the volume on Irving is by Charles 

Critical Au- Dudley Warner. A briefer life of the author is 
tliorities. "^ 

that by H.W. Boynton in the Riverside Biographi- 
cal Series. A delightfully written sketch of Irving by George 
William Curtis maybe found among the LJasi/ Chair articles 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER 119 

in Harper's Magazine (June, 1881), vol. 63, p. 145, and an- 
other in the same magazine (April, 1883), vol. QQt, p. 790. An 
elaboration of this same material is included in Curtis's Lit- 
erary and Social Essays (Harper's), p. 239. An interesting 
English estimate is given in Thackeray's Nil Nisi Bonum 
{Roundabout Papers, or Harper s Monthly, March, 1860). 
The Critic, March 31, 1883, was published as an Irving 
Centenary number. 

III. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER : 1789-1851. 

While the genius of Irving was winning for a newly 
developed American literature the recognition and re- 
spect of our kinsmen in England, his contemporary, 
James Fenimore Cooper, suddenly appeared in the field 
of letters to share in the distinction and the honor 
of widely recognized literary success. Our first notable 
writer of fiction. Cooper was in no sense a follower of 
the first American romancer, Charles Brockden Brown, 
nor an imitator of his fantastic and abnormal types. 
He stands rather as the originator of the novel of ad- 
venture in our literature, and is frequently termed 
" the American Scott." 

It is remarkable that many of the best English nov- 
elists have begun their careers as professional story- 
tellers almost by accident. This is true of Richardson 
and Fielding, the fathers of the modern novel, as it was 
of their great forerunner, Defoe. Walter Scott was 
driven to romancing in prose when Lord Byron invaded 
so successfully his chosen field of metrical romance. 
Dickens and Thackeray stumbled into fiction through 
the hedgerows of journalism. George Eliot had found 
a place for herself in letters before her talent for char- 
acter creation was discovered. Cooper's experience was 
somewhat similar to that of Fielding ; for the author 
of Joseph Andrews was provoked into novel writing by 



120 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

his impatience at the tediousness and unnaturalness of 
Kichardson's Pamela^ and our first American novelist 
of genius started upon his earliest venture to prove to 
his wife that he could write a better story than one that 
by chance he was trying to read. The secret of Cooper's 
success is the same as that of these others ; given the 
innate talent for narration, and the born story-teller 
will — whatever and whenever the exciting cause of his 
activity — in the fullness of time come to his own. 

James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, 
New Jersey, September 15, 1789 ; but before he was 
quite one year old his father removed his family to a 
most romantic homestead on the shore of Otsego Lake 
in central New York. It was the frontier of civilization 
Coopers- ^^ ^^^^ day, and on the very edge of the in- 
town. terminable forest that stretched out over the 

western wilderness. The deer, the wolf, the wildcat, 
and the bear were familiar denizens of the still savage 
woods. The tribes of the Six Nations still held their 
pow-wows and followed the warpath beneath its shade. 
The lonely cabins of more venturesome settlers were 
still exposed to the horrors of Indian attacks. The 
little village of Cooperstown itself exhibited all tlie 
various phases of pioneer life and character. Amid 
these scenes and in this vigorous atmosphere the child- 
hood of Cooper was passed. It is no wonder that the 
impressions of these early years should remain vividly 
painted on his memory to give realistic coloring to the 
picturesque tales of pioneer life which were later to be 
written. 

A second period of unconscious preparation came 
On when, in 1806, having got himself expelled 

swpijoara. from Yale College through some outbreak of 
youthful folly in his junior year, he signed articles on 
board the merchant ship Sterling, and entered upon a 



122 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

regular apprenticeship before the mast. A year later, 
he secured a commission as midshipman in the United 
States Navy, and for three years followed the service 
on the Atlantic and the Lakes. In 1809, he was in com- 
mand of the gunboats on Lake Champlain. Cooper 
resigned from the Navy in 1811, but his experiences on 
shipboard had made him master of material which he 
afterward used in two or three as admirable sea tales 
as ever were written. 

James Fenimore Cooper was thirty years old when 
he began to write. He was then living in Westches- 
ter County, not far from the city of New York, on 
what was known as the Angevine Farm, a beautifully 
situated estate commanding an extended view of the 
ijije Sound. His resignation from the Navy nine 

Experiment, years before had been coincident with his 
marriage to a Miss De Lancey, whose father during 
the Revolutionary War had supported the cause of the 
Crown. Cooper himself had not settled down to any 
definite vocation — least of all had any thought of a 
literary career entered his head. The occasion which 
led to the writing of his first novel has been mentioned. 
" I believe I could write a better story myself," he 
said, laying down an English novel which had come 
into his hand. " Try," said his wife. In November, 
1820, the novel. Precaution^ was published. No one 
reads the book to-day; it is doubtful if many of 
Cooper's contemporaries read it, but some of his friends 
seemed to find evidence of promise amid its crudities 
and encouraged the author to go on. The next year he 
had something better to present them ; this time it was 
The Spy^ a tale of the Revolution. 

This famous novel had some foundation in historical 
fact. Cooper had heard from John Jay, years before, 
an account of a patriot spy who had been in his service 



THE PILOT 123 

during the war ; this was the germ of the narrative. 
The story was vivid and impressive ; it was 
full of local color ; it appealed to the patriot- ^ '^" 
ism of readers. In many ways it was the best piece of fic- 
tion that had been produced in this country, and even 
permitted comparison with Scott. Its success was imme- 
diate and unprecedented at home, while in England its 
success was relatively as great. It was translated into 
French and then into other European languages. It 
was dramatized and long remained popular on the stage. 
Numerous imitations were inspired ; and the hero of 
the novel, Harvey Birch, found a place in the popular 
heart. 

Between 1820 and 1830, Cooper produced eleven 
novels. The Pioneers (1823) was the first of the 
famous series by reason of which Cooper holds his rank 
among the novelists. It was a labor of love — this at- 
tempt to interpret the picturesque life of the frontier, 
and with the final completion of the Leather Stocking 
Tales he had fairly performed the task. This great 
series, however, was not produced consecutively or in 
regular order. Cooper's fourth narrative was The Pilots 
the first of his sea tales ; and this appeared in January, 
1824. 

The Pilot was, like The Spy^ an experiment ; for 
the real romance of the sea had not been at- 
tempted, although the coarsely realistic sto- 
ries of Smollett had indeed introduced the theme into 
English fiction. Scott's novel The Pirate had been pub- 
lished near the close of 1821, and as the author's 
identity was still concealed, the apparent familiarity 
with nautical terms displayed in that narrative occa- 
sioned much conjecture. It was declared that it must 
be the work of a seafaring man. Cooper maintained 
otherwise and asserted that the author's ignorance of 



124 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

maritime affairs was betrayed by the book. He went 
further and determined to write a sea story to prove 
his argument. The success of The Pilot was ahnost as 
brilliant as that of The Spy. For the first time, a genu- 
ine sea novel had been written ; and in spite of some 
obvious defects, The Pilot remains to this day one of 
the best novels of its class. The principal characters, 
Colonel Howard, the American with tory sympathies. 
Captain Borroughcliffe, the British officer, Captain 
Manual of the Marines, the midshipman, Merry, Bolt- 
rope, the quartermaster, and, above all. Long Tom 
Coffin, the typical American sailor, are most happily 
drawn. The " female " characters, as Cooper would 
have designated the heroine and her companion, are — 
as is always the case in his narratives — inane and un- 
real. On the other hand, the actual hero of the story, 
John Paul Jones, who appears in disguise and is known 
only as the Pilot, is presented with considerable suc- 
cess ; the character certainly maintains the impressive- 
ness of the traditional hero of romance and presents as 
commanding a figure as any produced in more recent 
attempts to portray this imposing personality of Revo- 
lutionary days. 

Thus was James Fenimore Cooper fairly launched 
Cooper's on his career as a novelist. He wrote prolific- 
Novels, ally, becoming the author of some thirty works 
of fiction, of which perhaps a dozen may be called great 
novels. Besides those already named. Precaution 
(1820), The Spy (1821), The Pioneers (1823), and 
The Pilot (1824), the following are included in the 
list: Lionel Lincoln (1825), The Last of the Mo- 
hicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Red Rover 
(1828), The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (1829), The 
Water-Witch (1830), The Bravo (1831), The Hei- 
denmauer (1832), The Headsman (1833), The Moni- 



COOPER'S NOVELS 125 

kins (1835), Homeward Bound (1838), Home as 
Found (1838), The Pathfinder (1840), Mercedes of 
Castile (1840), The Deerslayer (1841), The Two 
Admirals (1842), Wing-and-Wing (1842), Wyan- 
dotte (1843), Afloat and Ashore (1844), 3Iiles 
Walli)igford (1844), Satanstoe (1845), The Chain- 
hearer (1846), The EedsUns (1846), The Crater 
(1847), Jack Tier (1848), The Oah Openings (1848), 
The Sea Lions (1849), and The Ways of the Hour 
(1850). In addition to these narratives. Cooper was 
also the author of a History of the United States Navy 
(1839), of a biography of one of his shipmates, Ned 
Myers (1843), of tales contributed to Graham's Maga- 
zine^ and of ten volumes of travels. 

Cooper's literary work was interrupted variously. 
Seven years he spent in foreign residence, personal 
Owing to an abnormal sensitiveness to criti- Traits, 
cism and lack of self-control in the vigorous expression 
of his opinions, he established a reputation, not wholly 
merited, for unreasonableness, intolerance, and pug- 
nacity. His unfortunate irascibility of temper precipi- 
tated quarrels. His belligerent patriotism was aroused 
by European criticism of American institutions, and 
the manner in which he expressed his protest aroused 
resentment abroad. No less irritating were his own 
criticisms passed upon some of our national defects and 
crudities which he noticed after his return to the United 
States. Several of his novels were written in the spirit 
of satire solely as expressions of his censure ; these are, 
naturally, his poorest works. ^ He was bitterly criticised 
in the public press. To maintain his contentions, he in- 
volved himself in lawsuits and, indeed, won most of the 

^ This criticism applies especially to The Bravo, The. Heidenmauer, 
The Headsman, The Monikins, The Redskins, and Home as Found, this 
last, perhaps, the worst of Cooper's performances. 



126 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

suits ; but he also won a most unpleasant notoriety, be- 
coming in the highest degree unpopular both in America 
and England. And yet, with it all. Cooper was at heart 
a sincere, earnest, pure-hearted, truth-loving man of 
honor, a fearless and devoted patriot. 

Of undisputed power are the novels which comprise 
The the famous Leather Stocking group ; and it is 

sSfcWng mainly upon the merits of this remarkable 
Tales. series that Cooper's claim to distinction rests 

both at home and abroad. The character of the hero, 
Natty Bumppo, or Leather Stocking, portrayed from 
youth to old age, is unique in literature. Professor 
Lounsbury, the biographer of Cooper, declares it to be 
" perhaps the only great original character that Ameri- 
can fiction has added to the literature of the world." 
It is a fact worthy of note that these Indian tales have 
been translated into nearly all, if not all, the languages 
of the civilized globe. When The Prairie was completed 
in 1827, five editions were published at the same time : 
two appeared in Paris, one in French, and one in 
English ; one in London ; one in Berlin ; and one in Phil- 
adelphia. But the most picturesque statement regarding 
the popularity of these novels abroad is found in a letter 
written in 1833 by Morse, the inventor of the electric 
telegraph. He says: — 

" I have visited, in Europe, many countries, and what I 
have asserted of the fame of Mr. Cooper I assert from per- 
sonal knowledge. In every city of Europe that I visited, the 
works of Cooper were conspicuously placed in the windows 
of every bookshop. They are published as soon as he pro- 
duces them in thirty-four different places in Europe. They 
have been seen by American travellers in the languages of 
Turkey and Persia, in Constantinople, in Egypt, at Jerusa- 
lem, at Ispahan." ^ 

^ Lounsbury's James Fenimore Cooper, p. 76. 



MERITS AS A NOVELIST 127 

f The later years of the novelist's life were passed 
mainly on his estate at Cooperstown. Here, 
with many uncompleted literary projects in 
mind, some of them already begun, death came upon 
him, September 14, 1851. The fifteenth of September 
would have been his sixty-second birthday ; on the 
twenty-fifth, a public meeting was held in the City Hall, 
New York. Washington Irving presided, and a com- 
mittee of prominent literary men was appointed to 
arrange for suitable memorial exercises. These exercises 
were held in Metropolitan Hall, February 25, 1852. 
The audience was representative of the culture of New 
York, Daniel Webster presided, and William CuUen 
Bryant delivered the memorial address, which was elo- 
quent and just. 

No master of style in the large sense, Cooper did 
possess the one essential gift of a great nov- Merits as a 
elist. He had a story to tell and told it in Novelist, 
such fashion as to make it real. In narrative and de- 
scription, he was eminently successful. His word pic- 
tures of forest and prairie, of land fights and sea fights, 
of storm and wreck are superb. The account of the 
Pilot's working the frigate from her perilous position 
on a treacherous coast and the thrilling incident of the 
Ariel's wreck are unsurpassed. Cooper was prolix, he 
moralized to excess on commonplace themes. His char- 
acters are often described as conventional rather than 
living personalities. Nevertheless, in his best narra- 
tives interest rarely flags. He is fertile in incident, good 
in arousing suspense, and not too technical to be clear. 
The reader who to-day takes up the volumes of the 
Leather Stocking Series in their proper order — The 
Deerslayer^ The Last of the Mohicans^ The Path- 
finder^ The Pioneers^ and The Prairie — will not be 
disposed to question the preeminence of these tales in 



128 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

the field of native historical romance. If he adds to 
these an equal number of the sea tales, including The 
Pilot, The Red Rover, The Water- Witch, The Two 
Admirals, Wing -and- Wing, he will find that the genius 
of Cooper does not suffer when brought in comparison 
with later story-tellers who — many of them his imi- 
tators — are cultivating the romance of nautical adven- 
ture to-day. 

The Last of the Mohicans is the volume usually pre- 
Suggestlons scribed for reading in school courses. It is a pity 
lor Reading, that the pupil should not first read The Deer- 
slayer^ its predecessor in the series. As representative of 
the sea tales, either The Pilot or The Red Rover may be 
taken. The Spy will prove an interesting narrative for those 
who enjoy historical romance. While it is impossible satis- 
factorily to represent any novel by selections from it, the 
first five chapters of The Filot will serve well to ilhistrate 
Cooper's style in narrative ; so will chapters 27, 28, 29, and 
30 of The Deerslayer. The first includes the account of the 
escape of the Ariel ; the second that of Natty Bumppo's 
brief captivity among the Hurons. Both are thrilling incidents 
admirably narrated. For a review of Cooper's life and work, 
select the James Fenimore Cooper by Thomas R. Lounsbury. 
It is an ideally written biography — one of the best in the 
series of the American Men of Letters. A short sketch of 
Cooper is the volume by Clymer in the Beacon Biographies, 
Bryant's memorial address, in the volume of his Orations and 
Addresses, will repay the reference. The Atlantic Monthly, 
for September, 1907, contains an interesting article on 
Cooper, by Brand er Matthews. 

IV. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT : 1794-1878. 

William Cullen Bryant, first of our American clas- 
Birth and sic poets, was born November 3, 1794, at 
Parentage. Cumniington, in the beautiful hill region of 
western Massachusetts. His father, Peter Bryant, of 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 129 

Puritan descent, was a physician and surgeon — a 
country doctor of the old school, skilled by experience, 
self-forgetful and self-sacrificing. He was a man of 
literary tastes, and not alone encouraged his son in the 
development of his talent, but was himself an occasional 
writer of verse. For several terms he served in the 
state legislature as representative and as senator. He 
was revered for his high ideals, and was widely known 
as " the good and learned Doctor Bryant." Mrs. Bryant, 
a descendant of John Alden of the Plymouth Colony, 
w^s a woman of great energy and keen moral sense, 
thoroughly representative of the sturdy New England 
type. With remarkable persistency, she kept a diary for 
fifty-three solid years — in itself a moving testimony to 
her conscientious, practical character. Each year had its 
little volume, the paper being sometimes cut and bound 
by her own hands, and sewed with linen thread of her 
own spinning. One entry in the diary reads as follows : 

"M[onday] 3. Stormy. Wind N.E. Churned — unwell. 
Seven at Night a Son Born." 

And this brief note records the birth of William 
CuUen Bryant. 

As an infant, the future poet was frail and sickly. 
Gathering strength as he grew he began early 
to take unusual delight in the beautiful en- 
vironment of his country home. Surrounded by rugged 
hills, the Hoosack range not far distant, amid the nar- 
row winding valleys with their rushing mountain streams, 
and great tracts of woodland solemn and grand, the 
boy became a lover of nature. As a child, he prayed that 
he might be a poet. He was precocious, knew his let- 
ters before he was two years old, and was placed in 
school at four. At nine, he was writing little poems, 
and paraphrased a part of the book of Job. In these 



130 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

efforts, William Cullen was encouraged and criticised 
by his father — 

" Who taught my youth 
The art of verse, and in the bud of life 
Offered me to the Muses." ^ 

At thirteen, he composed a satire, The Embargo^ 
which Dr. Bryant thought worthy of publication. This 
composition, aimed at the President, Thomas Jeffer- 
son, after one of the unpopular acts of his administra- 
tion, appeared in print at Boston in 1808, but was 
afterward discarded by the poet. 

The family was now living with Mrs. Bryant's 
parents on the farm belonging to Ebenezer 
' Snell, a stern, rigorous Puritan, who neverthe- 
less was not without the grace of humor ; and the influ- 
ence of Grandfather Snell was strong in the develop- 
ment of the growing boy. The activities of farm life 
proving too laborious for William's strength, he wel- 
comed the opportunity to secure a college education. 
In 1809, he was sent to the home of an uncle, a clergy- 
man in North Brookfield, to begin the study of Latin. 
In eight months, he had mastered the grammar, had 
read the New Testament, all of Virgil, and the Orations 
of Cicero. The next year he attended a school in 
Plainfield to learn Greek — to which he gave himself, 
as he says, with his whole soul. In September, 1810, 
Bryant entered Williams College as a sophomore. The 
experience of college life was brief, however, for at 
the end of seven months the student, dissatisfied with 
the limited advantages then offered by the institution, 
withdrew from Williams, expecting to enter Yale Col- 
lege in the fall. But this anticipation was not realized, 
as Dr. Bryant found it impossible to furnish the means 

^ Hymn to Death. See also stanzas 11-14 in the autobiographical 
poem, A Lifetime. 



% 









fe^iP 










§ 5 

^ I 

o f 

Si 
^ £? 
SI 

Si 






132 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

necessary to go on, and the period of Bryant's student 
life — to his own lasting regret — was thus abruptly 
terminated. 

Bryant's poetical talents were not, however, allowed 
The Poet's to lie dormant. In his father's library, he found 
Awakening, several volumes of the contemporary English 
poets, which stimulated his imagination and directly 
influenced his own expression. From an early age he 
had read Cowper with delight ; he was familiar with 
Thomson's Seasons; he now read Southey and Kirke 
White ; and it is worthy of note that Blair's morbid but 
remarkable poem. Hie Grave., which he discovered at this 
time, moved him with melancholy pleasure. It must have 
been during this period — in the autumn of 1811, as the 
poet recalled it — that Thanatopsis was composed. 

At the close of 1811, Bryant became a law student 
studying in an office at Worthington. While diligent 
law. jjj jjjg legal studies, poetry still allured him 

and nature's hold upon his affections was strengthened 
by a new experience. Bryant now read Wordsworth 
for the first time. The Lyrical Ballads ^ fell into his 
hands and, as he said in later life to his friend, 
Kichard Henry Dana, — "a thousand springs seemed to 
gush up at once in my heart, and the face of nature of a 
sudden to change into a strange freshness of life." This 
influence of the English poet — the supreme interpreter 
of nature and chief apostle of simplicity and natural- 
ness in verse — is to be recognized not as setting a new 
model for the western poet, but as confirming in his 
mind the truthfulness and value of conceptions already 
there. "Now he learned what nature herself might 
mean to a genuinely poetic spirit, and a new world lay 
open before him." ^ He knew that he, too, had re~ 

^ The Lyrical Ballads were published in 1798. 

2 William A. Bradley's Bryant {English Men of Letters Series), p. 36. 



TO A WATERFOWL 133 

celved the gift of poetry. Yet he pursued his law 
studies to their natural close, and in 1815 was admitted 
to the bar. 

Bryant's twenty-first birthday fell in November, 1815. 
On an afternoon in December, following, the to a 
newly fledged lawyer trudged across the hills waterfowl, 
seven miles to the village of Plainfield, where it was de- 
cided that he should begin the practice of his profes- 
sion. I^is spirit was depressed, his ambition seemed 
thwarted. In the previous year he had written to a 
friend these lines : — 

" And I that loved to trace the woods before, 
And climb the hills a playmate of the breeze, 
Have vowed to tune the rural lay no more. 
Have bid my useless classics sleep at ease, 
And left the race of bards to scribble, starve and freeze." 

We may well imagine that the dreariness of the wintry 
landscape on that December afternoon reflected the 
doubt and despondency of Bryant's mood. Then came 
a glorious sunset, and as the young man gazed at the 
rosy splendor of the clouds, a solitary bird appeared 
winging its flight along the horizon. Bryant watched it 
out of sight ; and that evening in his new abiding-place 
he wrote his imperishable lines To a Waterfowl^ with 
its tender close : — 

" He who from zone to zone. 
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
In the long" way that I must tread alone. 
Will lead my steps aright." 

Three months later, Bryant removed to Great Bar- 
rington, settled down to his profession, and definitely 
abandoned all idea of being a poet. 

Meanwhile there occurred an event which makes a 
very notable record in the history of American litera- 
ture. Among his Boston acquaintance, Dr. Bryant 



134 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

numbered Mr. Phillips, one of the editors of the new 
North American Review ; ^ and by that gen- 
' tleman he was asked to invite his son, William 
CiiUen Bryant, to contribute to the magazine. To this 
invitation there came no immediate response from the 
law office in Great Barrington ; but Dr. Bryant, look- 
ing through a drawer in an old desk at Cummington, 
came upon some of the verse which his son had left 
there at his departure. Among the manuscripts, he found 
the poems Thaiiatopsis and the Inscription for the En- 
trance to a Wood, It was a dramatic discovery. It is said 
that the poet's father was so affected by what he had 
found, that he ran with the poems to an appreciative 
neighbor, burst into tears, and exclaimed, " Oh, read 
that; it is Cullen's." Without consulting their author, 
Dr. Bryant immediately copied the poems, took them 
to Boston, and placed them in the editor's hands. When 
Phillips read Thanatopsis to Richard Henry Dana, 
associate editor of the North American^ the latter re- 
marked with a smile, "Ah, Phillips, you have been 
imposed upon ; no one on this side of the Atlantic is 
capable of writing such verses." However, the two 
poems appeared in the Review for September, 1817. 
As already stated, Bryant had written Thanatopsis^ as 

, nearly as he could recollect, in 1811. Throusrh 
Thanatopsis. . , . 

some impulse of self-distrust or of diffidence, 

he had refrained from submitting these unusual lines to 
his father, whose kindly criticism he had commonly in- 
vited, and they had lain thus hidden for six years. The 
poem was a marvelous production for a boy of seven- 
teen — this solemn " view of death," so calm and self- 
controlled in its presentation, so universal and elemental 
in its stately setting. When published in the Review, 
the poem lacked its formal introduction — the exhorta- 
1 The North American Review was established in 1815. 



THANATOPSIS 135 

tion to " list to Nature's teachings," nor did it then 
possess the familiar lines of its present effective con- 
clusion. The poem began with what is now line 17, 
" Yet a few days," and ended with line 6Q, " And 
make their bed with thee." But it did include those 
sonorous verses : — 

" Yet not to thine eternal resting-place 
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish 
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down 
With patriarchs of the infant world — with kings, 
The powerful of the earth — the wise, the good, 
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past. 
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills 
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, — the vales 
Stretching in pensive quietness between ; 
The venerable woods — rivers that move 
In majesty, and the complaining brooks 
That make the meadows green ; and, poured round all, 
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste, — 
Are but the solemn decorations all 
Of the great tomb of man." 

Marvelous indeed it was that one so young could 
rise to such lofty thought and find such impressive 
phraseology for its expression ; and no less wonderful 
that this youth, roaming the woods alone, should com- 
mand such skill in the use of blank verse, the resonant 
voice of which has eluded many a clever versifier. In 
the face of this achievement, we can only recall the 
general precocity of Bryant's earlier youth and his en- 
joyment of the poet Cowper. ^ 

Similar comment may be passed upon the second of 
these two poems, the Inscription for the En- ipj^g 
trance to a Wood, Though expressive of a inscription, 
lighter, less solemn mood, it does not fall in excellence 

^ " Cowper's poems had been in ray hands from an early age and I 
now passed from his shorter poems ... to his Task, the finer pas- 
sages of which supplied a form of blank verse that captivated my ad- 
miration." — Autobiographic fragment. 



136 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

below its coDipanion piece. It speaks of calm, tran- 
quillity, and deep contentment. The forest shades 

" Are still the abode of gladness ; the thick roof 
Of green and stirring branches is alive 
And musical with birds. . . . 

. . . The Rivulet 
Sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er its bed 
Of pebbly sands, or leaping down the rocks, 
Seems, with continuous laughter, to rejoice 
In its own being." 

A prompt request for further contributions brought 
The Prose foi'th in the following year an essay on Amem- 
Essay. ca?i Poetry^ which is entitled to rank at least 

as the first attempt by an American writer in the field 
of literary criticism. In it the writer emphasized the 
truth that for a literature to be national, it must be 
natural ; and must originate, without imitation, in the 
sincere personal expression of individual genius. 

Personal experiences which deeply concerned the 
poet occurred in quick succession. In 1820, Dr. Bryant 
died, and Bryant's Hymn to Death was completed by 
a noble tribute to his father's memory — infused with 
more of personal feeling than had characterized the 
poems just described. In June of the following year 
came the poet's marriage to Miss Fanny Fairchild, a 
farmer's daughter, whose virtues had inspired the lines 
O Fairest of the Rural Maids, in which Poe saw 
*' the truest poem written by Bryant." Shortly after his 
marriage, the poet was honored with an invitation from 
the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College to 
read a poem at the coming Commencement. 

Such was the occasion of Bryant's first visit to Boston 
The visit ^^^ Cambridge, and his first presentation to 
to Boston, the men who were at that time leaders in 
American scholarship, and in literary taste. The poem 
read was The Ages. Its theme is the progress of man 



FIRST VOLUME OF VERSE 137 

through the centuries and the triumph of virtue and 
liberty in the New Workl. It is composed in the Spen- 
serian stanza ; is, on that account perhaps, somewhat 
artificial in its effect, and falls below the standard of 
Bryant's best work ; yet the poem was heartily received 
and, in the minds of many of his hearers, The Ages 
placed its author "at the very head of American poets/' 
One result of this visit was the beginning of a warm 
and intimate friendship between Bryant and 
Richard Henry Dana, a friendship which con- 
tinued unbroken until death. A second result was the 
publication, through the influence of Dana and Phillips, 
of the first volume of Bryant's verse. This appeared in 
1821. It was a small pamphlet of forty-four pages, 
bound in brown paper boards, and containing the fol- 
lowing eight poems: The Ages, To a Waterfowl, 
Translation of a Fragment of Simonides (written 
apparently while Bryant was in college), the Inscrip- 
tion for the Entrance to a Wood, The Yellow Violet, 
Song "The Hunter of the West," Green River, and 
Thanatopsls. While not all of Bryant's compositions 
to that time are included, these poems were representa- 
tive of his best work, and five of them were never sur- 
passed by any subsequent composition. Thanatopsis 
now appeared in its completed form — the conclusion 
having been added, possibly, to meet some criticism 
which had deplored the purely " pagan " sentiment of 
the poem in its earlier form. The poet continued to 
publish, his work appearing at intervals in the Review, 
and also in The Idle Man, a short-lived periodical es- 
tablished by Richard Henry Dana in New York. In 
1823, he began regularly to send his verse to a new mag- 
azine in Boston, the United States Literary Gazette, 
which, under the editorship of Theophilus Parsons, had 
a distinguished although brief career. From this maga- 



138 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

zine the poet received and accepted an offer of $200 a 
year for his verse, to average a hundred lines a month. 
In three years, Bryant published in its columns between 
twenty and thirty poems, among which were The Mas- 
sacre of Scio, Hizpah, The Hivulet, March, Summer 
Wind, Monument Mountain, Autumn Woods, To a 
Cloud, and A Forest Hymn. 

In 1825, Bryant withdrew from the practice of law, 
Removal to ^^^ ^^ response to the urgency of friends 
New York, removed to New York. Here he assumed 
editorial charge of a new literary publication somewhat 
heavily weighted by the title of The New York Re- 
view and Athenceum Magazine. To its first issue the 
poet contributed A Song of Pitcairn's Island ; the 
same number contained also a poem by Dana and 
Halleck's now familiar poem, Marco Bozzaris, Besides 
Halleck and Dana, the literary men of New York — 
among them Paulding, Willis, and James Fenimore 
Cooper — became his friends and associates. The city 
atmosphere was not altogether congenial, nor were the 
professional ideals of some in the group so high as 
Bryant's ; they did not take the art of verse so seri- 
ously as he who deemed the poet's exercise anything 
but 

" The pastime of a drowsy summer day." ^ 

His poems during this period still breathe the love of 
nature; and frequently he journeyed back to his Massa- 
chusetts hills for the freshening of the old environment. 
The career of the Magazine was closed in 1827. But 
Bryant's editorial course was only beginning. 
Evening He was offered a position on the staff of the 
^°^^' New York Evening Post, founded in 1801 by 

Alexander Hamilton, and at this time the best estab- 

^ Read The Poet, written by Bryant in 1863, — especially the last 
three stanzas. 



COLLECTED PIECES 139 

lished of the metropolitan newspapers. In 1829, he be- 
came editor in chief; thereafter, financially independent, 
with a political influence national in its scope and a 
growing reputation as the foremost American journalist, 
he lived his long and useful life, absorbed in the exact- 
ing duties of his profession, universally esteemed and 
honored by his countrymen, but finding little time for 
poetic utterance, and producing nothing that compares 
in beauty or power with the compositions of his earlier 
years. 

In 1832, the poet published a volume of his collected 
pieces, eighty-nine in all. Here were gathered volume of 
all of his early poems which he cared to preserve 1832. 
and those contributed to magazines, including a group 
of compositions which had appeared in The Talisman^ a 
miscellany of prose and verse published under Bryant's 
supervision as an annual in 1828, 1829, and 1830. Of 
this group only two poems. The Past and TTie Even- 
ing Wind., are worthy of note ; the first was considered 
by the poet one of his very best ; Poe greatly admired 
the second — which has been said to be " less a de- 
scription than the very thing itself which it describes." 
The Song of Marion's Men and the exquisite lines To 
the Fringed Gentian were first published in the vol- 
ume of 1832. During the forty-five years which fol- 
lowed, Bryant's further compositions hardly equaled in 
amount the verse included in this collection. 

Bryant traveled much. Three times he visited the 
middle west, whither his brothers and their 
mother had removed after Dr. Bryant's death, 
in 1820. The family was established in central Illinois. 
The poet's first visit was in 1832. It was in the pioneer 
period and the country was still to a large extent pic- 
turesque and primitively wild. 

" The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful," 



140 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

profoiinclly impressed his mind. The journey on horse- 
back across the prairies was the inspiration of one o£ 
his finest descriptive poems. ^ Here he pictures the en- 
circling vastness swept by the shadow of the clouds, 
aflame with tossing golden flowers, and still the haunt 
of wolf and deer. His imagination was stirred also with 
visions of the future ; he saw the " advancing multi- 
tude " following fast upon those who had begun already 
to till and tame this rich garden soil of the waiting 
West. An interesting incident of the journey was his 
chance meeting with a company of Illinois volunteers 
led by a tall, uncouth lad, on their way to help put 
down an Indian uprising under the famous chief Black 
Hawk. The young captain whose homely awkwardness 
and breezy humor had aroused Bryant's interest was 
introduced to him as young Abe Lincoln ; thirty years 
later Mr. Bryant himself had the pleasure of intro- 
ducing Mr. Lincoln to a great audience in New York 
city, as a candidate for the presidency of the United 
States. 

In later years, the editor of the Evening Post made 
several trips to Europe, one of which included a tour of 
Egypt and the Holy Land. The letters sent by him to 
his paper, descriptive of his travels, were published 
under the titles Letters of a Traveller (1850) and Let- 
ters from the Far East (1869). 

For practically fifty years, William CuUen Bryant 
citizen and was a distinguished citizen of New York. His 
Orator. position as a leading representative of Ameri- 
can letters became more and more conspicuous in spite 
of the infrequency of his verse. He was one of the most 
successful of public speakers; and on occasions demand- 
ing oratory of an exceptional excellence, he was the 
natural choice. His most notable addresses were those 

1 The Prairies, 1832. 



TRANSLATION OF HOMER 141 

delivered at the meetings commemorating the work of 
Cooper, Irving, and Halleck. In all his utterances, 
private as well as public, two qualities characterized 
Bryant — dignity and modesty. At a remarkable ban- 
quet given in honor of his seventieth birthday, in 1864, 
an occasion signalized by the presence and speech of 
Emerson and by poetical tributes from the distinguished 
contemporary poets of Cambridge and Boston, Bryant 
modestly described himself ''as one who has carried 
a lantern in the night and who perceives that its beams 
are no longer visible in the glory which the morning 
pours around him." 

At seventy-three, the poet began to translate the Iliad 
in blank verse ; four years later, at the end of Translation 
1871, both the Iliad and the Odyssey were °* ^°"^®'- 
finished and Bryant's excellent translation of Homer 
was published. 

The poet's old age was vigorous and hale. From youth 
he had been compelled to take unusual care of 
his health. He adopted strict rules regarding 
diet and exercise. He rose early and regularly spent 
between one and two hours in exercising with dumb- 
bells and bar. It was his invariable practice without 
regard to weather to walk to and from his office in the 
city, and he discarded the use of the elevator. Bryant 
was not tall, but erect and well proportioned. In old 
age his appearance was distinguished and everywhere 
commanded reverence. His leonine head, long silvery 
hair and beard made him a venerable figure. He was 
always courtly, always dignified ; to those who did not 
know through intimacy his great kindness of spirit 
and his genial nature, Bryant seemed cold and austere. 
Readers of his poems do not need to be told that the 
religious feeling typical of the Puritan was strong and 
vital. 



142 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Besides his residence in the city, Mr. Bryant owned 
The Poet's two fine country homes : one was the Snell 
Homes. homestead in Cummington, to which he re- 
turned for a short period every year ; the other was an 
estate at Roslyn, Long Island, acquired in 1843, where 
in a spacious old-fashioned mansion dating almost from 
Revolutionary times, he made his principal residence. 
He took especial delight in farm and garden, personally 
superintending the care of both and experimenting with 
fruits and flowers. Here he delighted to receive his 
friends, and here he unostentatiously entertained many 
a distinguished visitor from abroad. 

Mrs. Bryant died in 1866. The poet's death occurred 
twelve years later. The circumstances were 
peculiar. A statue to the Italian patriot, Maz- 
zini, was unveiled in Central Park, on the twenty-ninth 
of May. Bryant delivered the address. He spoke bare- 
headed, the sun shining directly upon him ; it was un- 
usually warm for the season, and when he had finished 
he appeared exhausted. After the exercises the poet 
walked across the park with an old friend and ascended 
the steps of the latter's house ; but as he entered the 
vestibule he fell suddenly backward through the open 
door, striking his head on the stone platform. The re- 
sults were fatal ; a fortnight later, he died at his own 
home, in his eighty-fourth year. ^ The funeral services 
were held in New York ; then with simple exercises the 
poet was buried by the side of his wife at Roslyn. 

1 Read Bryant's poem, June (1825). 

" I gazed upon the glorious sky 
And the green mountains round, 
And thought that when I came to lie 
At rest within the ground, 
'Twere pleasant that in flowery June, 
When brooks send up a cheerful tune, 
And groves a joyous sound, 
The sexton's hand, my grave to make. 
The rich green mountain-turf sliould break." 



BRYANT AS A POET 143 

The love of nature is preeminently the theme of Bry- 
ant's verse, and his characteristic treatment of Bryant as 
this theme is in connection with the elemental * Poet, 
experiences — life and death. He is our recognized poet 
of the forest ; no other American singer has interpreted 
so impressively as he the mystery and sanctity of the 
woods. To him the woodland solitude was eloquent of 
majesty and monition, of benevolence and sympathy : 
" The groves were God's first temples. 



Fit shrine for humble worshipper to hold 
Communion with his Maker." ^ 

Bryant is both descriptive and reflective in his verse. 
He is often called the American Wordsworth, Descriptive 
because he resembled the great English poet Poems, 
in these traits ; but Bryant was never an imitator of 
Wordsworth or of any other poet. He was distinctly 
original in choice of themes and true to his own native 
personality in his expression. He was faithful to the 
scenes with which he was familiar and to the spirit of 
what he himself had observed. In A Winter Piece^ for 
example, a poem which in its beginning contains many 
suggestions of Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, the atmo- 
sphere is unmistakably that of the Massachusetts woods 
in winter. The snow-bird twitters on the beechen bough, 
the partridge nestles beneath the hemlock, the rabbit, fox, 
and raccoon have left their tracks in the snow ; smoke 
wreaths rise among the maples where the sap is being 
gathered in brimming pails, the woods ring with the 
stroke of the axe ; and with the first breath of spring — 

" Lodg-ed in sunny cleft, 
Where the cold breezes come not, blooms alone 
The little wind-flower, whose just opened eye 
Is blue as the spring heaven it gazes at." ^ 

^ A Forest Hymn. 

^ Indeed it was this conscientious practice which made Bryant's work 
most valuable to those who followed him. We must not forget that he 



144 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The poet is wont to feel the serious and chastening 
aspect of these scenes, and the spirit of his brooding is 
often tinged with melancholy. He sings : — 

" The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, 
Of wailing winds and naked woods and meadows brown and sere." ^ 

But this tender poem was intensely personal, and was 
inspired by the death of a dear sister. There are other 
poems in which an entirely different spirit is mani- 
fested, as The Planting of the Apple Tree and that 
rollicking bird-song, Robert of Lincoln. Nor could any- 
thing be cheerier than the musical lines of that beauti- 
ful descriptive poem, Green River. 

This descriptive quality in Bryant's compositions 
^j^g must not be overlooked ; it is an important 

Descriptive feature of his verse. We get exquisite illus- 
^' tration of it in the two flower-poems. The Yel- 
low Violet and To the Fringed Gentian. Both these 
poems are like many of Wordsworth's in their simplicity 
and in the little moral lessons which they convey — a 
characteristic resented by some critics as an intrusion 
or a defect, although the imaginative insight of each 
descriptive touch is disputed by nobody. 

It is, of course, the reflective poems which have given 

to Bryant his lasting fame. For various rea- 

Refiectivo sons the early composition, Thanatopsis^ over- 

oems. shadows all the others. The universality of 

its theme, its passionless exaltation of spirit, its rugged 

was a pioneer ; and that subsequent American poets had the suggestion 
of his example in this regard at least — and followed it. How clearly this 
principle was recognized by Bryant is seen in a letter to his brother 
John, in 1832. " I saw some lines by you to the skylark. Did you ever 
see such a bird ? Let me counsel you to draw your images, in describ- 
ing nature, from what you observe around you." It was the genius of 
Bryant that discovered the poetry in the New England landscape, its 
hills, its forests, and its flowers. 
1 The Death of the Flowers. 



BRYANT'S TECHNIQUE 145 

and lofty eloquence, its diction so calm, so austere, 
and elemental, place it yet among the great poetical 
expressions of the race. The Hymn to Death is an am- 
plification of the same theme in less impressive setting, 
although the utterance of a personal grief gives pathos 
to its close. In A Forest Hymn^ which completes this 
remarkable trilogy of poems on the mortality of man, 
the poet's idea shapes itself more clearly: Death is 
indeed universal — Lo ! all grow old and die ; — but 
Life is ever reappearing. There is not lost one of 
earth's charms. After the flight of centuries — 

" The freshness of her far beginning- lies 
And yet shall lie. Life mocks the idle hate 
Of his arch-enemy Death." 

The Saxon element predominates in Bryant's verse. 
His style is simple — sometimes severe: vet 
always ntting. W hat crispness or diction do 
we find, for instance, in the oft-quoted stanza: — 

*' Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again; 
Th' eternal years of God are hers ; 
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain. 
And dies among his worshippers." ^ 

Bryant commonly used the so-called iambic ten-syllabled 
line. When he employed the stanza, it was usually 
the four lines of alternating^ rhymes, known as the 
quatrain ; but Bryant was at his best in blank verse, 
which he used with a facility and power of expression 
unsurpassed by any other American poet. 

The volume of Bryant's poetry is comparatively small, 
and its range of subjects is somewhat narrow. He is 
called stern and cold by many of the critics; and it is 
true, as they point out, that the poet lacked humor, 
and his poetry passion. And yet in spite of these and 
other limitations, a high estimate must be placed upon 
1 The Battlefield (1837). 



146 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

the value of Bryant's work, and on its significance in 
the development of our national literature. He was 
original, natural, and sincere ; he drew his inspiration 
not from the poets he read, but direct from Nature as 
he saw her in the mountains and the valleys, the trees, 
the brooks, and the flowers, of his New England home. 
He proved that native themes were as poetical in Amer- 
ica as in England, and that the true poet finds his ma- 
terial at his hand. In his poems — as in his profession 
and his private life — he celebrated the virtues typical 
of the Puritan, truth, purity, moral earnestness, rever- 
ence, and faith. He wrote a few poems which must re- 
main a permanent possession in our literature, and what 
is, after all, more notable yet, he laid a safe and sub- 
stantial foundation for American verse. 

The poem Thanatopsis calls for careful study, not only 
Suggestions that the student may accurately grasp its central 
lor Reading, thought, its " message," but also that he may 
really appreciate the superb quality of its diction as shown in 
the choice of words and moulding of phrases. The Inscrip- 
tion for the Entrance to a Wood should be compared with 
it. To a Waterfowl^ The Yellow Violet^ and To the Fringed 
Gentian may be read in connection, and the poet's manner of 
pointing a moral lesson noted. Wordsworth's poem To the 
Small Celandine might be read for comparison ; also Fre- 
neau's stanzas on The WiM Honeysuckle. Other of Bryant's 
descriptive poems, like Green River, The Prairies, and The 
Evening Wind, should be read with especial reference to 
the spirit and truthfulness of the description. The Song of 
Marion'' s Men, The Massacre at Scio, Not Yet, and Our 
Country's Call exhibit another phase of Bryant's verse ; The 
Planti7ig of the Apple Tree and Robert of Lincoln illustrate 
still another. A Lifetime is of interest as a summary of 
the poet's experience, and The Poet as an expression of his 
own ideal. A Forest Hymn, The Death of the Flowers^ and 
The Flood of Years (1876) are too important to be omitted 



SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 147 

from the list ; and it is hoped that the study of Bryant's life 
will have aroused a desire to read most if not all of the 
poems mentioned in the preceding pages. 

The only complete edition of Bryant's Poems is that edited 
by Parke Godwin (his associate on the Evening Post, and 
his son-in-law), published by Appleton. Mr. Godwin is also the 
author of the authoritative biography of the poet (Appleton). 
A more compact biography is the interesting William Cullen 
Bryant, by John Bigelow, in the American Men of Letters 
/Se7*ie5 (Houghton Mifflin Co.). The most recent life of Bry- 
ant is that by William A. Bradley, in the English Men of 
Letters Series (Macmillan). Critical comment will be found 
in E. P. Whipple's Literature and Life, Stedman's Poets 
of America, and Richardson's American Literature, There 
are poetical tributes to Bryant by Stedman, Stoddard, Whit- 
tier, Holmes, and Lowell ; with the stirring lines of Lowell's 
birthday offering. On Board the '76, read also his humorous 
characterization of Bryant in A Fable for Critics (1848). 



148 



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CHAPTER IV 

PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

I. The Literary Development of New England. 

II. Ralph Waldo Emerson: 1803-82. 
III. Henry D. Thoreau : 1817-62. 
IV. Nathaniel Hawthorne: 1804-64. 

V. Edgar Allan Poe : 1809-49. 

I. THE LITERARY DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 

The literary achievements of the Knickerbocker 
group of writers were practically accomplished by 1850. 
During the larger part of that first half century, there 
had been no question of the literary predominance of 
New York ; New England had played, comparatively, 
an inconspicuous part in the field of national literature. 
A few of Longfellow's earliest poems were published 
previous to 1830, and some of Whittier's also ; but it 
was really nearer 1840 than 1830 that either obtained 
general recognition as a poet. Emerson's first series of 
Essays was published in 1841, and Hawthorne's Mosses 
from an Old Manse in 1846. The Scarlet Letter did 
not appear until 1850. It was, nevertheless, a period 
of intellectual activity. In Boston and Cambridge, new 
ideas were stirring the minds of the thinkers, and 
throughout the New England States, which were ad- 
vancing rapidly in material prosperity by the establish- 
ment of manufacturing interests and the building up of 
a rich trade with the East Indies, the intellectual life 
of the people was feeling the stimulus of its own 
energy in rather remarkable degree. 

The first phase of this new awakening is recognized 



150 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

in the so-called Unitarian movement which spread over 
New England during the early years of the 
Unitarian century. Opposition to the Calvinistic doc- 
Movement, ^pjjjgg Qf ^i^Q Presbyterian and other ortho- 
dox denominations had existed in the colonies even in 
Revolutionary times, but it was not till near the end of 
the eighteenth century that this opposition assumed the 
aspect of an important religious controversy. The arena 
in which John Cotton and his grandson, Cotton Mather, 
Roger Williams, and the many lesser controversial- 
ists of the colonial period had waged their theological 
battles was again the scene of an intellectual and re- 
ligious agitation which in its immediate effects and 
subsequent influence was more far reaching even than 
that celebrated movement of the preceding century, — 
the Great Awakening of 1734-44. In 1805, Harvard 
College — the fountain-head of New Enojland litera- 
ture — elected a Unitarian as professor of Divinity. 
By the end of the first decade, nearly every prominent 
Congregational pulpit in eastern Massachusetts was 
held by a preacher of Unitarian doctrine. The theo- 
logical seminary at Andover was founded in 1807 to 
combat the new teaching. Moses Stuart (1780-1852) 
and Leonard Woods (1774-1854) became famous as 
teachers in this institution and as defenders of the ortho- 
dox creed. Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), the father of 
Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, was 
the ablest and best-known champion of orthodoxy in 
New England. In 1826, he was called from his church 
in Litchfield, Connecticut, to a prominent Boston pul- 
pit, that he might have a position on the firing-line. 

The recognized leader of the Unitarians was William 
EUery Channing, who was born at Newport, Rhode 
Island, and received his education at Harvard. He be- 
came the minister of a Boston parish in 1803. Cultured, 



TRANSCENDENTALISM 151 

eloquent, and a persuasive writer, he became famed 
throughout New England for his oratorical wiiiiam 
p'ifts and as a theologian. In seriousness of 5?"^, 
purpose and in purity of character, Channing 1780-1842. 
represented the strength and virtue of the old Puritan 
stock. His portrait, presenting him in the conventional 
black gown of the clergyman with the white bands at 
the neck, shows a face highly intellectual and refined, 
with features delicate, spiritual, almost ascetic in their 
type. The influence of Dr. Channing was strongly felt ; 
a sermon preached by him at an ordination in Balti- 
more, in 1819, is especially famous as a rallying-cry of 
Unitarianism. " Prove all things ; hold fast that which 
is good," was his text ; the sacredness of the individual 
conscience and the freedom of individual thousrht was 
his theme. While his writings are largely controversial, 
he was also a graceful essayist, and his literary influ- 
ence was felt by contemporary writers who were stirred 
by his thought and passion. 

A second phase of this quickening in the intellectual 
life of New England appears in the develop- Transcen- 
ment of transcendentalism. Closely allied with dentaiism. 
the religious movement just described and includino: 
many prominent Unitarians within its circle, transcen- 
dentalism, nevertheless, was not Unitarianism. The lat- 
ter was a religious movement ; it grew into the liberal 
denominations of the present day. Transcendentalisnj 
designates a school of abstract thought, a philosophy 
general in its application to life and conduct. It was 
distinctly local in its development. 

This new school of abstract ideas arose among the 

intellectual leaders of Boston and Cambridge « . . 
1 • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 /. r Origin and 

during the second and third decades of the signin- 

century. The teaching of German and French ''"^''®' 

philosophy, the influence of Goethe, of Coleridge, and 



132 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

Carlyle had a part in its origin. The transcendentalists 
were idealists. They opposed materialism in every form. 
They regarded matter as an appearance and thought as 
the reality. The old Platonic system, the doctrine of 
ideas, was practically the basis of their belief. They 
emphasized the necessity of the individual and the free 
expression of the individual mind. They chose to be 
led by the "inner light." "The highest revelation is 
that God is in every man," said Emerson ; " I believe 
in this life. I believe it continues. As long as I am 
here, I plainly read my duties as writ with pencil of 
fire." ^ They thought and talked and wrote upon 
the truths which cannot be demonstrated, which lie 
beyond the sphere of the established, which transcend 
human experience and ordinary knowledge. They 
were deeply intent upon reform — social, civil, and reli- 
gious. They were philanthropic in purpose, and mem- 
bers of the group were often associated in schemes for 
the betterment of society, which usually proved Utopian 
dreams. 

In July, 1840, a monthly periodical was started by 
the transcendentalists, as the organ of their 
views. At first under the editorship of Mar- 
garet Fuller, a talented but visionary woman, whose 
name is prominently associated with the movement, and 
later under that of Emerson, The Dial ran its honorable 
course for about four years, when it was discontinued 
for lack of financial support. To this famous magazine, 
Emerson contributed essays and poems, while others of 
the coterie, Bronson Alcott, George Ripley, Theodore 
Parker, James Freeman Clarke, and Henry David Tho- 
reau, were among its best-known writers. Carlyle's com- 
ment upon the early numbers of The Dial is probably 
susfffestive of the jreneral attitude of those outside the 
1 Emerson's Journal, 1833. 



BROOK FARM 153 

circle toward these enthusiastic idealists. " But it is 
all good and very good as a soul ; wants only a body, 
which want means a great deal." ^ Many of the new 
views were far from clear and many hapless failures 
resulted from these Utopian experiments ; at the same 
time some practical progress was made and through this 
campaign of debate, in more than one direction was 
built the road to reform. 

In 1841, an ideal community (one of several such ex- 
periments) was established by some of these 
enthusiasts at Brook Farm in West Roxbury, 
nine miles from Boston. George Kipley was the pro- 
moter and leader of the movement. It attracted some 
whose names were to be well known in later days. The 
young George William Curtis was an interested mem- 
ber, and so was Charles A. Dana, afterward the dis- 
tinguished editor of the New York Sun, For a time, 
also, Nathaniel Hawthorne was a member of the colony ; 
and, ten years later, utilized some phases of his experi- 
ence in the Blithedale Romance. Emerson was inter- 
ested and an occasional visitor, although not an active 
Brook Farmer himself. The experiment was not alto- 
gether a failure. There were difficulties all along, but 
for five years the community flourished, demonstrating 
the possibilities of a simple, rational method of living, 
until, in 1846, there came a disastrous fire, and soon 
afterward the farm was. sold. 

The general influence of the thought and labors of 
the transcendentalistswas stimulating in high j^gg^itg 
degree to the intellectual and moral growth of of the 
the period, in spite of the numerous " isms " 
which flourished among them. It stirred the minds of 
men, and in general wrought for culture and for philan- 
thropic and progressive measures. It enlisted the eager 
^ See Holmes's Emerson {American Men of Letters)^ p. 162. 



154 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

enthusiasm of young Lowell in temperance reform and, 
for a brief period, in the agitation for woman suffrage ; 
it labored with Whittier and Garrison and Phillips in 
the cause of abolition. It reflected the intellectual 
activity of Emerson ; and if Longfellow, Holmes, and 
Lowell (in maturer life) were not personally identified 
with the cult, their ideas were indirectly colored by 
the influences which transcendentalism set afoot. It 
was an important current in New England culture 
and was significant of what Mr. Barrett Wendell has 
appropriately called " the Renaissance of New Eng- 
land." 

Of this latter phase of the movement, Ralph Waldo 
Emerson is the distinguished representative. 
A leader among these students of ideas, a 
preacher of moral and intellectual truths, a poet, a phi- 
losopher, a teacher, his influence upon the intellectual 
life of New England was stimulating in the extreme, 
while the effect of his writings on American thought 
and letters can hardly be reckoned. 

Among the minor authors in this interesting group 
The there are three or four that call for comment, 

dental*'*"" although necessarily brief. George Ripley 
Writers. (1802-80) was a Harvard graduate, and in 
1826 became minister of a Unitarian Society in Boston. 
He became conspicuous as a leader among the transcen- 
dentalists with the founding of the Brook Farm com- 
munity, was active as a writer, and together with Charles 
A. Dana edited the iVe?/; American Cydopcedia (1857- 
63). Like others of the Brook Farm colonists, Ripley 
enjoyed the helpful friendship of Horace Greeley, and 
wrote, under Greeley's patronage, scholarly reviews for 
the New York Trihme. He made, however, no perma- 
nent contribution to literature. Amos Bronson Alcott 
(1799-1888), famous for his eccentricities and for the 



THE ALCOTTS 155 

nnintelligibllity of his mystical utterances, set out at 
fifteen as a peddler. With the design of add- qij^e ^i- 
ing to the family income he traveled through cotts. 
a part of the South, but returned with an empty pack and 
four hundred dollars in debt. This experience was t3'pi- 
cal of later ones ; he was nothing if not unpractical. At 
twenty-six, he tried school-teaching in Connecticut, but 
his peculiar ideas kept him moving from place to place. 
It is only fair to add that many of Alcott's original 
methods are established principles in the school systems 
of to-day. In 1834, he opened a school in Boston, which 
lasted for five years. Attracted by Emerson's presence 
in Concord, Mr. Alcott removed thither. The most ex- 
treme notions of the transcendental brotherhood were 
pushed by him beyond the extreme. With an idea of 
improving upon the Brook Farm experiment, he organ- 
ized a new community at " Fruitlands." His idealism 
was so strong that he would not permit canker-worms 
to be disturbed, and forbade the planting of such 
vegetables and roots as grow downward instead of up- 
ward into the air. After the failure of this communistic 
experiment, he held "select conversations " which be- 
came a settled institution in Concord. Like Emerson, 
he traveled to some extent in the West, holding " con- 
versations " and expounding the transcendental ideas. 
To The Dial he contributed his Orjphic Sayings^ which 
aroused much ridicule from those not of the elect. In 
1879, the Concord Summer School of Philosophy and 
Literature was established, and of this Mr. Alcott was 
the recognized head. Alcott's essay on Emerson and 
his Concord Days (1872) are his most readable re- 
mains. A more practical member of the family was 
Louisa May Alcott (1832-88), who struggled hard 
to offset her father's deficiencies on the bread and 
butter side of existence. She possessed talent as well 



156 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

as perseverance, and success came with the publica- 
tion of her Little Women^ in 1868. No more popular 
series of stories for young people has ever been pro- 
duced than that which contains this book and its sequel, 
Little Men. Her later stories, Jo's Boys, An Old- 
Fashioned Girl, Eight Cousins, and Hose in Bloom, 
have, with their naturalness, humor and humanness, 
well maintained the popularity of Miss Alcott's earlier 
work. 

Margaret Fuller, perhaps, commands more of interest 
Margaret than any other figure in the transcendental 
Puller, group. A brilliant intellect marred by a some- 
what morbid egotism characterized her literary 
work; she shared in the erratic tendencies of her asso- 
ciates, but surpassed most of them in critical ability and 
to a certain extent in literary expression. Like Alcott, 
Margaret Fuller conducted "conversations " — for the 
benefit of Boston ladies. She was prominent in the tran- 
scendental circle at Concord, and was warmly esteemed 
by Emerson. A frequent visitor at Brook Farm, Mar- 
garet Fuller is assumed to be the original of Zenobia 
in Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance. She, too, experi- 
enced the practical friendliness of Horace Greeley, and, 
in 1844, became the literary critic on the Tribune. De- 
voted to philanthropy and reform, she was the friend 
of the Italian patriot Mazzini. In 1847, she visited 
Italy, and during her residence there was secretly and 
romantically married to the Marquis Ossoli. In 1850, 
the pair determined to come to America, and, with their 
infant son, set sail from Leghorn. Within sight of the 
American coast their vessel encountered a severe storm 
and was wrecked. The entire family perished. It is un- 
doubtedly to this tragic event that the general interest 
in the personality of Margaret Fuller is in part due ; 
but her place in American literary history is deserved. 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 157 

The most important of her works are Woman in the 
Nineteenth Century (1844) and Papers on Literature 
and Art (1846).^ 

II. RALPH WALDO EMERSON : 1803-82. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson came of the academic class. 
His ancestors for five generations had been scholars 
and most of them had been ministers. His father, Wil- 
liam Emerson, minister of the First Church in Boston, 
was a man of good sense, dignified after the manner of 
the old New England type, and emphatic in the expres- 
sion of his views. The mother of Ralph Waldo was 
known for her patience, her gentle courtesy, her quiet 
dignity and serenity of spirit. Among the early com- 
panionships of the household, there was another which 
had a lasting influence in the development of Emerson's 
character, that of an aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, whose 
strong intellectuality was of the sort which distinguished 
Emerson himself. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born May; 25, 1803, in 
the parsonage on Summer Street, in Boston, -^^^^ 
not far from the house in which Franklin was Atmosphere, 
born almost a century before. His boyhood was passed 
in an atmosphere of intellectuality and of literary effort. 
In 1804, the Rev. William Emerson organized what was 
known as the Anthology Club, and edited a publication 
of the club, the Monthly Anthology^ or Magazine of 
Polite Literature. The circle of contributors included 
John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster and much schol- 

^ Ten of her "conversations," dealing* with the mythology of the 
Greeks, are reported in Caroline H. Ball's Margaret and her Friends, 
The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, by R. W. Emerson, W. H. Chan- 
ning',and J. F. Clarke, the biography by Julia Ward Howe in the Famous 
Women Series, and that by Thomas Wentworth Higginson in the Amer- 
ican Men of Letters Series, are the chief authorities on Margaret Fuller 
and her career. 



158 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

arly talent. The famous Boston Athenseiim library was 
an outgrowth of this club ; and although with the death 
of Mr. Emerson in 1811, the Anthology cesLsed publica- 
tion, the appearance of the North American Review^ 
in 1815, is regarded as a revival of the earlier maga- 
zine. 

Waldo was eight years old at his father's death ; and 
Youth and *^® household was in serious financial straits. 
Education. There were five boys to be clothed and fed — 
and educated as family tradition and innate talent re- 
quired. By heroic exertion and a most rigid frugality, 
Mrs. Emerson succeeded in realizing her ambition for 
her sons. It is related that one winter when times were 
especially hard in the family, Ralph and his brother 
Edward had but one great-coat between them and had 
to take turns in going without and in bearing the taunts 
of their school-fellows, calling after them — "Whose 
turn is it to wear the coat to-day ? " It is said, too, that 
Ralph Waldo was obliged on one occasion to forego 
the reading of the second volume of some work drawn 
from a circulating library because the pennies needed 
to secure it were not to be spared. Yet out of the en- 
forced economy and the life bare of material comfort, 
the boys emerged sweet-tempered, nobly-mannered, and 
with the best academic training to be had. All but one 
were graduates of Harvard College. 

There are not many records of Emerson's school-days. 
He studied at the Boston Latin School, and entered 
Harvard at fourteen. Through his appointment as Presi- 
dent's messenger, he had his lodging free in the Presi- 
dent's house, and his board was paid by waiting on table 
in the commons. He was not conspicuous as a student, 
yet was always the scholar ; not talkative, his utterances 
were well weighed, deliberate, and " with a certain flash 
when he uttered anything that was more than usually 



EMERSON AS SCHOOL-TEACHER 159 

worthy to be remembered."^ Gentle and amiable, his 
personality lacked a little, perhaps, in masculine vigor. 
For mathematics, Emerson had no faculty ; but in all sub- 
jects of a literary sort, he took a good stand. Like most 
students who develop into geniuses, he read widely in 
authors not prescribed in his course. He won prizes in 
English composition, and at his graduation, in 1821, 
delivered the poem for the class. 

After leaving Harvard, Emerson taught for several 
years, at first in a suburban school for girls, gchooi- 
kept by his brother William, where the young teacher, 
instructor does not seem to have been altogether 
charmed with the teacher's lot. It was at this time 
that he composed one of his most widely known poems, 
Good-hye^ proud world! I''m going home. The latter 
half of this poem is descriptive of the sylvan retreat 
amid the rocks and pines at Canterbury, whither Mrs. 
Emerson had recently removed — a district now in- 
cluded within the limits of Franklin Park. The lines 
are significant of the spirit of this nature lover at the 
age of twenty. 

" O, when I am safe in my sylvan home, 
I tread on the pride of Greece and Rome ; 
And when I am stretched beneath the pines, 
Where the evening star so holy shines, 
I laugh at the lore and the pride of man, 
At the sophist schools and the learned clan ; 
For what are they all, in their high conceit, 
When man in the bush with God may meet ? " 

Emerson was also employed in a characteristic New 
England " academy " in the country near Lowell. His 
manner in the school-room was impressive ; his self- 
control was perfect, he never punished except with 
words. His last experience as a schoolmaster was in 
Cambridge. Here he is remembered as appearing " every 
^ Letter from a classmate of Emerson to Dr. Holmes. 



160 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

inch a king in his dominion, or rather like a captive 
philosopher set to tending flocks ; resigned to his des- 
tiny, but not amused with its incongruities." ^ 

In 1823, Emerson began studying for the ministry. 
Descended from a long line of ministers, deeply 
spiritual in nature and equally a passionate 
seeker after truth, full of ideals of helpfulness and phi- 
lanthropy, this was the natural course ; but his activi- 
ties in this profession were brief. He was ordained in 
1829 as associate pastor of the Second Church in Bos- 
ton, the historic Old North, which in the preceding 
century had flourished for sixty years under the minis- 
try of the Mathers, father and son. It was now one of 
the important pulpits of Unitarianism. The young min- 
ister, who in a few months became the sole incumbent, 
took an active interest in public affairs ; he was a mem- 
ber of the school board and was chosen chaplain of the 
State Senate. He invited anti-slavery lecturers into his 
pulpit and helped philanthropists of all denominations 
in their work. Three months after his ordination, how- 
ever, Emerson found himself fettered even by the liberal 
doctrines of the Unitarians ; and in 1832, disapproving 
the continuance of the Lord's Supper as a permanent 
rite, he presented his scruples in a sermon to his parish- 
ioners. His views not receiving their support, he quietly 
withdrew from the church. 

The young wife, Ellen, a delicate girl of seventeen 
when Emerson married her soon after his or- 
Buropoan dination, died in 1831. The strain of this 
^^*"" bereavement, combined with that of his sep- 

aration from his church, affected his own health, and 
on Christmas Day, 1832, Emerson, urged by his friends 
to take a sea voyage, sailed from Boston on a small 

1 Recollections of Mr. John Holmes, quoted by his brother, Dr. 
Holmes, in his life of Emerson. 



CONCORD 161 

vessel bound for the Mediterranean. He visited Italy, 
France, and England ; and apparently found his great- 
est satisfaction in the opportunity thus afforded to meet 
the noted men whom he had long wished to see. 

Coleridge he visited just one year before that writer's 
death ; he saw Wordsworth also, then sixty- ^(.g^aint- 
three years old, and past the time of poetical t^oes in 
power. And then he went to see Carlyle, who ^^ ^ ' 
was living on his lonely farm at Craigenputtock. " Of 
course we could do no other than welcome him," wrote 
Carlyle to his mother, "the rather as he seemed to 
be one of the most lovable creatures in himself we 
had ever looked on. He stayed till next day with us, and 
talked and heard talk to his heart's content, and left us 
all really sad to part with him." With this congenial 
introduction began the life-long friendship of the two 
great moralists. The Scotch essayist was seven years 
the senior of his guest. 

By his translations, his essays, and his Life of Schil- 
ler, Carlyle had already won recognition from many like 
Emerson, who were deeply interested in the newly dis- 
covered fields of German literature. This was also the 
year, 1833, in which Carlyle was putting forth his most 
characteristic work, the Sartor Resartus ; and one re- 
sult of this visit was the publication of that work dur- 
ing the following year, in America, under the direction 
of Emerson. 

In 1834, Ralph Waldo Emerson became a resident 
of Concord. For a year he lived with his 
mother in the old-fashioned gambrel-roofed 
house, built as a parsonage for his grandfather, who in 
his time had served the Concord church. It was this 
house which subsequently came to be occupied by the 
novelist Hawthorne, and was given fame in the title of 
his Mosses from an Old Manse. In 1835, Emerson was 



I 

162 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

married to Miss Lidian Jackson, of Plymouth, and set- 
tled in the house, then on the edge of the town, where 
for almost fifty years he lived his serene and unevent- 
ful life. 

The quiet village has been a famous place ever since 
the day when by the rude bridge the " embattled farm- 
ers " fought the British soldiers in that first conflict of 
the Revolutionary war ; and its fame has grown more 
enduring because of the remarkable group of thinkers 
and writers who made the town their home. To Emerson, 
the surroundings were peculiarly attractive. From his 
home a path led through open fields to the shore of 
beautiful Walden Pond. There was plenty of space 
about him. Meandering through an expanse of green 
meadow land crept the sleepy Concord River, the Mus- 
ketaquid of his poem, between its willow-bordered 
banks. More than all else he loved the woods ; a forty- 
acre lot of woodland he bought by the shore of Walden 
that he might feel the sense of possession in it. In My 
Garden he sings its beauty and significance to him. In 
constant communion with Nature he wrote of her in 
prose and verse. To him, God was near in every form 
of natural life, and he loved to express in his writings 
the deep spiritual significance of what he saw and heard. 
He said : — 

" I go to the god of the wood 
To fetch his word to men. 



" There was never mystery 

But 'tis figured in the flowers ; 
Was never secret history 

But birds tell it in the bowers." ^ 

Among his townsmen, Emerson moved a familiar and 
a welcome figure. His duties as a citizen and neighbor 
were never shirked. Everybody knew the tall, spare 
1 The Apology, 1834. 



164 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

man with the slight stoop of the shoulders, the shrewd, 
wise, tender face with its smile " like the mild radiance 
of a hidden sun." Whenever he spoke in the town hall 
or in Concord church, they turned out in large numbers 
to listen to his address with neighborly pride and due 
respect — if not with entire comprehension of his utter- 
ances. 

There was, too, a circle of intimate friends about 

him, some, like Bronson Alcott and Marsra- 
Dlstln- . ° 

guished ret Fuller, attracted thither by the presence 
Neighi)or8. ^£ ^^^ generally recognized as the ablest pro- 
phet of transcendentalism. The young and talented 
Thoreau, a disciple, although a very independent one, 
early engaged his interest. In 1842, Hawthorne came 
to Concord, and for five years dwelt in the Old Manse. 
Occasionally, too, there appeared fantastic dreamers 
with queer schemes of social reformation in their heads, 
who sought out Emerson in his retreat as if to consult 
the oracle at some sacred shrine. Altogether, the little 
New England town became closely identified with that 
strong intellectual movement which Emerson, more than 
any other American writer, had inspired. 

In 1836, there was published anonymously in Bos- 
ton a little book of about a hundred pages, 
entitled Nature. This was Emerson's first 
characteristic utterance through the printed essay. " A 
reflective prose poem " is what Dr. Holmes calls it : 
beautiful in its exaltation of spirit, poetical, mystical, 
vague — incomprehensible, doubtless, to many an un- 
sympathetic reader. It was the first public enunciation 
of the transcendental principles on which much of the 
subsequent teaching was based. 

" The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to 
face ; we, through their eyes. Why shoukl not we also enjoy 
an original relation to the universe ? Why should not we 



THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR 165 

have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, 
and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of 
theirs?" 

This is the question which serves to start the discus- 
sion. Under the heads Commodity, Beauty, Language, 
and Discipline, the essayist speaks of the varied advan- 
tages which our senses owe to nature. A characteristic 
passage is the following : — 

" In the woods is perpetual youth. Within these planta- 
tions of God a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festi- 
val is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of 
them in a thousand years. In the woods we return to reason 
and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — 
no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature 
cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head 
bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all 
mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball ; I 
am nothing ; I see all ; the currents of the Universal Being 
circulate through me ; I am part or particle of God." 

Nature attracted some attention, aroused some hostile 
criticism. Its ideas were pronounced pantheistic, and 
considerable ridicule was bestowed upon the transcen- 
dental notions of the Concord sage. 

In the following year, 1837, Emerson delivered be- 
fore the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard 
College his famous address on The Ameri- American 
can Scholar, and with this notable utterance ^**^*'^"' 
emerged clearly into the light of public recognition. 
This address is first of all a challenge of academic 
ideals in that day, and then a plea to the scholar for 
a larger vision of his relation to nature, a braver atti- 
tude toward the conventions inherited from the past, a 
stronger confidence in the sacred, the divine character 
of his own perception of truth, and a call to participate 



166 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

in the life of his generation ; — not only to think, but 
to live. 

" The books which once we valued more than the apple of 
the eye, we have quite exhausted." 

" First one, then another, we drain all cisterns, and, wax- 
ing greater by all these supplies, we crave a better and more 
abundant food. The man has never lived that can feed us 
ever." 

" I ask not for the great, the remote, the romantic ; what 
is doing in Italy, in Arabia ; what is Greek art, or Proven9al 
minstrelsy ; I embrace the common, I explore and sit at the 
feet of the familiar, the low." 

In sentences like these did the orator assail the au- 
thority of scholastic tradition. His words disturbed the 
grave dignity of many in his audience. But to the younger 
generation of Harvard graduates who sat under the 
spell of his eloquence, Emerson spoke a message of 
wonderful power. 

" Fear always springs from ignorance." 

" In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended." 

" The unstable estimates of men crowd to him whose mind 

is filled with a truth, as the heaped waves of the Atlantic 

follow the moon." 

Suggestive indeed are these words to-day ; more im- 
pressive and inspiring were they then. " This grand 
oration was our intellectual Declaration of Independ- 
ence," says Dr. Holmes. " The young men went out 
from it as if a prophet had been proclaiming to them, 
' Thus saith the Lord ! ' " The oft-quoted comment of 
Lowell gives us a vivid impression of the effect pro- 
duced by this address. 

" It was an event without any parallel in our literary an- 
nals, a scene to be always treasured in the memory for its 
picturesqueness and its inspiration. What crowded and breath- 



EMERSON'S LECTURES 167 

less aisles, what windows clustering with eager heads, what 
enthusiasm of approval, what grim silence of foregone dis- 
sent!" 

From this time on, Emerson was a familiar figure on 
the public platform. His occasional addresses The 
were regarded as events of importance in the ^y**®'"^- 
literary and intellectual world. The public lecture sys- 
tem, the "lyceum,"as it was usually called, had grown 
into popular esteem. Throughout New England, Mr. 
Emerson was looked, upon as the most eminent lecturer 
in the field. His tours were extended through the mid- 
dle west as far as St. Louis ; and to this day in thriving 
Illinois and Indiana towns, one may hear it mentioned 
with complacent local pride that in such or such a year 
Emerson spoke there. 

The unmethodical manner in which these lectures 
were prepared is perhaps exaggerated by ^j^^ 
those who have dwelt on this feature of Em- Lectures, 
erson's work. From his commonplace book, or journal, 
Emerson culled the ideas, epigrammatically recorded, 
which touched his theme ; and thus he built the dis- 
course — almost haphazard, it would seem to a formal 
writer, without the usual regard to logic or coherence 
in composition. Yet these sharp, short, often paradoxi- 
cal sentences, weighty with truth, yet brilliant with 
their illuminating thought, keenly witty and delicately 
fanciful, made a most effective appeal to the audiences 
prepared to appreciate them. They stirred the minds 
and kindled the souls of many. It was a new voice in 
the land, a challenge and a prophecy, which came to 
have vital force in the intellectual and moral growth of 
thoughtful Americans in that generation. 

There was no vociferousness in Emerson's lecturing. 
Calm, simple, almost monotonous in delivery, without 
gestures, he read from his notes with deliberation and 



168 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

with frequent pauses ; but his voice was melodious and 
resonant, and all agree in the charm felt by his audit- 
ors. He did not prolong his discourse to weariness ; at 
the end of the sixty minutes, without peroration, with- 
out climax, he stopped. Lecturing he found laborious ; 
he followed it from necessity. And yet in spite of the 
discomforts of long journeys and of unhomelike inns, he 
enjoyed, too, the freedom of expression on the platform. 
It more than supplied the opportunities of his old Bos- 
ton pulpit, and immeasurably amplified the congregation 
of his hearers, for to the last Mr. Emerson remained a 
preacher. 

The First Series of Emerson's Essays appeared in 

_^ „ 1841. It included these now familiar dis- 

Th© Essays. 

courses : History^ Self-Reliaiice^ Compensa- 
tion^ Spiritual Laws^ Love^ Friendship^ Prudence^ 
Heroism^ The Over-Soul^ Circles^ Intellect^ and Art 
These were for the most part transcripts from his lec- 
tures. The favorite doctrines appear felicitously ex- 
pressed. 

" Trust thyself : every heart vibrates to that iron string." 
" Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." 
" A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." 
" To be great is to be misunderstood." 
" Insist on yourself ; never imitate." ^ 

In such compact, oracular utterances, Emerson loved 
to crowd his thought. Taken from their immediate set- 
ting, they appear yet more paradoxical than when read 
in their connection. These brief and startling epigrams 
illustrate both the strength and the weakness of this 
author's style. Many of these statements are debata- 
ble ; extreme application of every precept to the general 
conduct could hardly result in anything but confusion 
and turmoil. Nevertheless, these ideas were intensely 

1 These quotations are from the essay Self-Reliance. 



REPRESENTATIVE MEN 169 

stimulating, and if they made readers tbink, so much 
the better. Agreement with the writer's thought was 
by no means essential. Trust thyself ! was the burden 
of his teaching. Even to our generation these Essays of 
Emerson are illuminating and quickening epistles which 
have their greatest value, perhaps, in arousing and con- 
firming a wholesome independence of mind. 

The Second Series of Essays, published in 1844, 
included The Poet, Experience, Character, Manners, 
Gifts, Nature (a second handling of this theme), 
Politics, Nominalist and Realist, and The New Eng- 
land Reformers, 

In 1847, a cordial invitation to address lyceum audi- 
ences in England and Scotland led to a second Represent- 
trip across the Atlantic. The visit was a ^dEng^ush 
success. Emerson delivered many lectures. Traits. 
was warmly received, renewed the acquaintance with 
Carlyle, and made many new friends. The material of 
these lectures appeared in 1850 under the title Repre- 
sentative Men. The opening chapter is on the uses of 
great men — their most efficient and enduring service 
being that of introducing moral truths into the general 
mind. The characters selected for study and interpre- 
tation are : Plato, or the Philosopher ; Swedenborg, 
or the Mystic ; Montaigne, or the Sceptic ; Shake- 
speare, or the Poet; Napoleon, or the Man of the 
World, and Goethe, or the Writer. While the volume 
suggests a comparison with Carlyle's Heroes and Hero- 
Worship, it will be seen that the plan and idea of Em- 
erson's work are entirely different from his. 

In English Traits (1856), Emerson produced a 
thoughtful, appreciative, and not uncritical study of 
British personality and the significance of the national 
character. These two volumes stand by themselves as 
the only works of the essayist having a formal struc- 
ture and definite plan. 



170 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

The first collection of Emerson's poems appeared in 
1846. He had been writing verse for many- 
years, and some of his best-known composi- 
tions, The Problem^ Woodnotes, The Sphinx^ and others, 
had appeared in ITie Dial. Some, like the famous Con- 
cord Hymn^ had been heard upon notable occasions. In 
1867, a second collection appeared under the title May- 
Day and Other Pieces, 

The poetry of Emerson is, as one would expect to 
find it, intellectual, subjective, abstract. It is unemo- 
tional and often austere. " I do not belong to the poets, 
but only to a low department of literature, the report- 
ers, suburban men," Emerson had declared, writing 
to Carlyle. Again he had said with more of justice to 
his gift, '* I am born a poet, of a low class, without 
doubt, yet a poet. That is my nature and my vocation." 
While criticism has often joined in the poet's own de- 
preciation of his power, there are also many who find 
the fire of genuine poetic genius in his verse. Stedman 
calls him " our most typical and inspiring poet." The 
thought, the substance of his verse has the originality 
and vital strength of all his discourse ; the poetical form 
is uneven. 

Thus does Emerson write of the poet : — 

" Great is the art, 
Great be the manners, of the bard. 
He shall not his brain encumber 
With the coil of rhythm and number ; 
But, leaving rule and pale forethought, 
He shall aye climb 
For his rhyme. 

* Pass in, pass in,' the angels say, 

* In to the upper doors. 

Nor count compartments of the floors, 

But mount to paradise 

By the stairway of surprise.' " ^ 

1 Merlin, 1846. 



EMERSON'S POEMS 171 

There are numerous passages of wonderxul simplicity 
and beauty in the poetry of Emerson : lines like the 
familiar quatrain in Voluntaries, 

" So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
So near is God to man, 
When Duty whispers low, Thou musty 
The youth replies, I can "; 

— and the perfect lines in Woodnotes : — 

** Thou canst not wave thy stafP in air, 
Or dip thy paddle in the lake, 
But it carves the bow of beauty there 
And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake." 

In poems like TTie Humhle-Bee, The Snow-Storm^ 
The Hhodora, Woodnotes, Monadnoc, Musketaquid, 
Emerson is at his best, and ranks next to Bryant, if 
not as his equal, among American nature poets. He de- 
scribes the northward flow of Spring with its radiant 
life: — 

" As poured the flood of the ancient sea 
Spilling over mountain chains. 
Bending forests as bends the sedge, 
Faster flowing o'er the plains, — 
A world-wide wave with a foaming edge 
That rims the running silver sheet." ^ 

Of the dawn he writes : — 

" tenderly the haughty day 
Fills his blue urn with fire." * 

These are the phrases and figures of a true poet ; but 
a large part of Emerson's verse is oracular, like the 
paradoxes in his prose. Hence it is that much is said 
derisively of such orphic breathings as we find in The 
Sphinx, and Brahma — with its disconcerting 

1 May-Day. 2 Qde, Concord, July 4, 1857. 



172 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

" If the red slayer think he slays, 
Or if the slain think he is slain, 
They know not well the subtle ways 
I keep, and pass, and turn again." ^ 

Subtly symbolic as this group of poems is, it appeals 
to the intellect, and appeals strongly when once the 
reader finds the key. 

While Emerson never strikes the chord of passion, 
there is one poem — and that one of his best — wherein 
we feel the human heart-beat of a human grief. In 1842, 
the poet lost his little son, " a perfect little boy of five 
years and three months," he wrote Carlyle ; " a few 
weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and 
now the poorest of all." In Threnody we have the calm, 
philosophic, yet very feeling expression of the father's 
experience. It is not disconsolate. To him who so often 
interpreted to others the mystic whisperings of the 
great mother teacher, there comes a response from Na- 
ture's heart : — 

"Saying, What is excellent, 
As God lives, is permanent ; 
Hearts are dust, hearts^ loves remain ; 
HearVs love will meet thee again. 



House and tenant go to ground, 
Lost in God, in Godhead found." 



Emerson's attitude on public matters during the 
In War- period of agitation preceding the Civil War is 
time. interesting. His friends in the transcendental 

coterie were vigorous abolitionists. With characteristic 
self-restraint, Emerson refrained from violent utter- 
ance. He spoke against slavery, but not aggressively 

^ It is said that a little school-girl, bidden by her teacher to learn 
some of Emerson's verses, recited Brahma. The astonished teacher in- 
quired why she chose that poem. The child answered that she tried 
several, but could n't understand them at all, so learned this one, " for 
it was so easy. It just means ' God everywhere.'' " 



LATER WORK 173 

against the South. He proposed a plan to purchase the 
slaves from the planters, because " it is the only practi- 
cal course, and is innocent." As the struggle developed, 
however, his position on the issue of the hour was per- 
fectly clear. He stood with Wendell Phillips when the 
speakers were mobbed at a public meeting in Boston ; 
and when the Emancipation Proclamation went into 
effect, January 1, 1863, he read the vigorous stanzas 
of his Boston Hymn. He paid an eloquent tribute to 
Lincoln in an address at Concord in April, 1865, and 
was the orator at the services held by Harvard College 
in memory of her sons fallen in the war — when Lowell 
read his Commemoration Ode, 

Emerson's literary activity continued throughout a 
period of forty years. In 1868, 1869, and 187-0, Later Liio 
he delivered courses of lectures at Harvai-S and work, 
which furnished the material for the volume entitled 
Natural History of Intellect. Society and Solitude 
was published in 1870. Among the twelve essays in- 
cluded under this title is the one on Boohs., in which 
occur the oft-quoted but somewhat dubious rules : 
" Never read any book that is not a year old. Never 
read any but famed books. Never read any but what 
you like." It is in the essay on Civilization of this series 
that we find the famous precept, " Hitch your wagon 
to a star ! " 

The volume. Letters and Social Aims^ appeared in 
1874. Parnassus^ a collection of poems by British and 
American authors, a selection made by Mr. Emerson 
for his own pleasure, was published in the same year. 
The last public address written by Emerson was that 
delivered at Concord, in April, 1875, on the centennial 
of the fight at the bridge. 

In 1871, the poet visited California. Soon after his 
return to Concord, his house was partially destroyed by 



174 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

fire. A European tour followed for relief and recrea- 
j^gg^ tion — a tour which extended as far as Egypt. 

Journeys. During Mr. Emerson's absence a si3ontane- 
ous movement among his friends resulted in the sub- 
scription of some twelve thousand dollars — a gift which 
Mr. Emerson was with some difficulty prevailed upon 
to accept. It provided for the expense of the journey 
and for the restoration of the house. At the home-com- 
ing in May, 1873, the entire town of Concord assembled 
at the station to greet its famous and well-loved citi- 
zen. The church-bells announced his arrival, and the 
appearance of the train was received with the cheers of 
the assemblage. " Emerson appeared, surprised and 
touched, on the platform, and was escorted with music 
between two rows of smiling school-children to his 
house, where a triumphal arch of leaves and flowers 
had been erected." ^ 

Already, before the events just mentioned, there had 
iphe been indications of a weakening of the splen- 

Twiught. did intellectual power which had so long led 
the thought of that generation on the higher levels 
of the spirit. Memory failed, and now and then there 
was the pathetic spectacle of one, whose mastery of the 
written and spoken word had been preeminent, groping 
vainly for some familiar term. '* I can't tell its name," 
he said once when he wanted an umbrella; then, with a 
flash of his old humor, — " but I can tell its history. 
Strangers take it away." 

But the shadows fell gently on these days of declin- 
ing strength. In the spring of 1882, Mr. Emerson 
suffered from a severe cold, which developed into pneu- 
monia ; and after a brief illness the end came April 27, 
the poet recognizing his friends with a smile of greeting 
to the last. Upon Sunday, the thirtieth, simple and im- 
1 Memoirs o/B. W. Emerson, J. E. Cabot. 



EMERSON'S WORK 175 

pressive services were held in the church at Concord. 
The homes of the townspeople and the public buildings 
were draped. Emerson was buried in the village ceme- 
tery, Sleepy Hollow, at the dedication of which as a 
burial-place he had delivered an address. His body was 
laid at the foot of a tall pine, not far from the graves 
of Hawthorne and Thoreau. 

The writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, whether 
prose or poetry, are philosophical ; but they Emerson's 
make no attempt to set forth a comprehensive work, 
system of thought. Emerson is rather a spiritual teacher 
than a philosopher. Truth came to him not through an 
argument nor in logical progression, but in intuitions, 
as it does to a poet; and these keen, condensed, author- 
itative utterances so picturesquely expressed are self- 
convincing by their very form. His real philosophy was 
the purest idealism — an idealism which to material- 
istic readers appeared merely vague and mystical. He 
maintained that its application to conduct was the only 
worthy, the only practical course. This ideal he sup- 
ported with an independence and a self-possession that 
were marvelous. We hardly appreciate now how radi- 
cal he was, nor how indifferent to the views and opinions 
of others. To many who disputed his opinions, Emer- 
son's attitude seemed one of insolence. This was a mis- 
interpretation of the spirit of one who was as gentle 
and amiable as he was courageous. " What we admire 
in Emerson is not only the intellectual elevation but the 
moral purity and simple childlike goodness and sweet- 
ness of the man" — says a noted English essayist.^ In 
his search for truth, he felt only one responsibility — 
the responsibility to himself. Assured of his own integ- 
rity, he stood serene and happy in absolute freedom. 

This freedom of individual opinion and expression 
^ Joseph Forster, in Four Great Teachers. 



176 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

which he claimed for himself, Emerson urged upon all ; 
it was a cardinal point in his teaching. He taught also 
the simple life and practiced it. Above everything else, 
he believed and taught the immanence of God, the 
presence of divinity in all of nature and in man. He 
liberalized thought in America. His crisp sayings are 
everywhere quoted. Whatever of substantial value is dis- 
coverable in the various schemes of the "new thought" 
of to-day is pretty sure to go back to Emerson as its 
proper source. His ideas are current wherever men 
think seriously of life. Perhaps his greatest service to 
literature was the stimulus and encouragement which 
he gave to the youth of his own generation who fol- 
lowed so closely in his steps. Hawthorne came under his 
influence ; he was the direct inspiration of Whitman ; 
Longfellow, Holmes, and Lowell felt the immediate 
power of his message; and, together with Euierson, 
these were the men who largely determined the character 
of American literature in the nineteenth century, and 
gave it such distinction as it has. 

Of Emerson's prose, the following essays are especially 
Suggestions recommended : Self- Reliance, Compensation^ 
lor Reading. Books (in Society and Solitude) ; the address, 
The American Scholar, should certainly be read and the 
ideas characteristic of the writer be noted. In the same way 
parts of the first Nature should be considered. The student 
will find in English Traits an interesting account of Emer- 
son's visits with Wordsworth and Carlyle. Among the poems, 
some should be compared with those of Bryant's which have 
been read. These are particularly such nature poems as The 
River, The Rhodora, The Humble-Bee, The Snow-Storm^ 
Musketaquid, My Garden, The Titmouse, and Woodnotes 
I and II, More directly suggestive of the poet's transcen- 
dental utterances are : The Apology, Each and All, The 
Problem, The Sphinx, The Informing Spirit, Experience, 
Hamatreya, Nature (two versions, 1844, 1849), Days, and 



HENRY D. THOREAU 177 

Brahma. The Concord Hymn^ Boston Hymn, and Volun- 
taries are in a group by themselves, inspired by events. 
Threnody and Terminus are poems of experience. 

The authoritative editions of Emerson's Works are those 
published by Houghton Mifflin Company. The authorized bio- 
graphy is the Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by J. B. 
Cabot (2 vols.). The volume on Em^erson in the American 
Men of Letters Series is by Oliver Wendell Holmes ; that 
in the English Men of Letters Series (the most recent 
biography) is by George E. Woodberry. Sketches and criti- 
cisms are almost numberless ; it is best to mention few. The 
student, therefore, is referred only to the following titles : 
Emerson in Concord, by E. W. Emerson (son of R. W.) ; 
Concord Days, by A. Bronson Alcott, and the same author's 
Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Estimate of his Character 
and Genius; G. B. Bartlett's Concord ; H. E. Scudder's Men 
and Letters, and E. P. Whipple's Recollections of Eminent 
Men. Both Lowell and George W. Curtis have delightful 
essays upon Emerson Lecturing, the former in Literary Es- 
says, the latter in The Easy Chair. There is also a light 
sketch of Emerson (principally of Concord) in Curtis's Lit- 
erary and Social Essays. An English estimate, most appre- 
ciative, is to be found in Eour Great Teachers, by Joseph 
Forster. An excellent account of the communistic experi- 
ment in Roxbury is Brook Farm, by Lindsay Swift (in Na- 
tional Studies in American Letters). 



III. HENRY D. THOREAU: 1817-1862. 
While several of those who composed this group of 
transcendental thinkers in the Concord circle became 
more or less noted either for eccentricity or utterance, 
the most remarkable among them all, after Emerson, 
was Henry David Thoreau. A genuine lover of nature — 
a naturalist first of all — he was also a philosopher and a 
poet, too, although a crude one.^Hewp misunderstood 
by most of those who knew or heard of him while he 



178 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

lived, — and these were not many, — but by the inner 
circle of the transcendentalists he was comprehended 
and beloved. It is characteristic of his career that but 
two of his books were published in his lifetime while his 
published writings now number twenty volumes. 

Thoreau's ancestry was of mingled French and Scotch ; 
his grandfather, John Thoreau, emigrated to 
New England from the island of Jersey about 
1773, and settled in Concord in 1800. Henry Thoreau's 
father was a maker of lead pencils, and was in rather 
poor circumstances. Nevertheless Henry received a clas- 
sical education and was graduated from Harvard in 1837, 
at the age of twenty. If he won distinction in any of his 
studies it was in Greek, in which he was especially pro- 
ficient. He taught for a while, but for the most part he 
made his living by surveying and by making pencils. He 
also lectured from time to time, and on his father's death 
he continued the little business of pencil-manufactur- 
ing, which included a small trade in plumbago. He was 
thoroughly original and independent. Strongly Ameri- 
can, he was yet more strongly idealistic in his concep- 
tions of conduct and citizenship. He refused to pay the 
old parish tax which was then still exacted, and spent one 
night in jail because he would not pay his poll-tax on ac- 
count of the government's permission of slavery. When 
Emerson came to the cell with the inquiry, ''Henry, why 
are you here? " Thoreau received him with the question, 
"Why are you not here?" He was a friend of John 
Brown ; and declared that " any man more right than his 
neighbors constitutes a majority of one already." He re- 
garded only what was necessary as desirable. " A man is 
rich," he said, '' in proportion to the number of things 
which he can afford to let alone." His acquaintance with 
Emerson began early. He was for a time a member of 
his household, and during Emerson's visit to England 



THE NATURALIST 179 

in 1847, Thoreau occupied his house and took charge of 
affairs during his absence. 

Concerning Thoreau's qualifications as a naturalist, 
Emerson has this to say : — 

*' He knew the country like a fox or a bird and passed 
Jthrpugh it as freely by paths of his own. . . . Under The 
his arm he carried an old music-book to press plants ; Naturalist, 
in his pocket his diary and pencil, a spy-glass for birds, mi- 
croscope, jack-knife and twine. He wore straw hat, stout 
shoes, strong gray trousers, to brave shrub-oaks and smilax, 
and to climb a tree for a hawk's or squirrel's nest. He waded 
into the pool for the water-plants, and his strong legs were no 
insignificant part of his armor. . . . His power of observation 
seemed to indicate additional senses. He saw as with micro- 
scope, heard as with ear-trumpet, and his memory was a pho- 
tographic register of all he saw and heard. . . . Every fact 
lay in glory in his mind, a type of the order and beauty of 
the whole. His intimacy with animals suggested . . . that 
' either he had told the bees things, or the bees had told him.' 
Snakes coiled round his leg, the fishes swam into his hand, 
and he took them out of the water ; he pulled the woodchuck 
out of its hole by the tail, and took the foxes under his pro- 
tection from the hunters." ^ 

In 1845, Thoreau built for himself a cabin on the 
shore of Walden Pond, and here for two years The 
he lived, cultivating potatoes, corn^and beans Hermitage, 
sufficient for his subsistence, recording his o°bservations 
of all natural phenomena, and transcribing from his 
journal the narrative of an excursion taken with his 
brother in 1839. It is this experience in his life with 
its subsequent record which has more than anything else 
aroused interest in the personality of Thoreau. '* My 
purpose in going to W§J4gnJ*ond," he says, "was not 
to live cheaply nor to live dearly there, but to transact 

^ From the Biographical Sketch, by R. W. Emerson, pp. 18-21. 



180 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

some private business with the fewest obstacles." He 
did not by any means discard human society ; he made 
frequent trips through the woods to his home in Concord 
and received many visitors at his hut. The simplicity 
and freedom of this unconventional life and its nearness 
to the heart of nature were his delight. He was handy 
with the axe and with all tools. He philosophized as he 
hoed his beans in the early morning. 

" When my hoe tinkled against the stones, that music echoed 
to the woods and the sky, and was an accompaniment to my 
labor which yielded an instant and immeasurable crop. It was 
no longer beans that I hoed, nor I that hoed beans ; and I re- 
membered with as much pity as pride, if I remembered at 
all, my acquaintances who had gone to the city to attend the 
oratorios." 

Walden^ or Life in the Woods^ contains the story and 
the thought of these two years ; it reveals Thoreau at 
his best and has long since become an American classic. 
The book was published in 1854. 

An earlier volume had appeared in 1849, the prepa- 

-,^ ™ , ration of which had formed no small part of 
The Week. , , . . 

that "private business" which had induced 

Thoreau's retirement to the hut on Walden Pond. A 
Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is the 
title of the volume, and the voyage which is the basis of 
its chapters had occurred ten years previous, when its au- 
thor, two years out of college, together with his brother, 
in a boat built by their own hands, had explored the 
courses of these beautiful streams. Richly descriptive, 
the Week is also full of the philosophy of Thoreau, some- 
times expanded into essay-like proportions, sometimes 
expressed in queer, crude lines of verse which some- 
how suggest the rhyming of an ancient bard ; fpr 
example : — 



A WEEK ON THE CONCORD 181 

" Conscience is instinct bred in the house ; 
Feeling- and Thinking propagate the sin 
By an unnatural breeding in and in. 
I say, Turn it outdoors, 
Into the moors. 

I love a life whose plot is simple, 
And does not thicken with every pimple, 
A soul so sound no sickly conscience binds it, 
That makes the universe no worse than 't finds it." ^ 

It is in his prose that the essayist of tenest shows himself 
a poet. 

" It required some rudeness to disturb with our boat the 
mirror-like surface of the water, in which every twig and 
blade of grass was so faithfully reflected ; too faithfully in- 
deed for art to imitate, for only Nature may exaggerate her- 
self. The shallowest still water is unfathomable. Wherever 
the trees and skies are reflected, there is more than Atlantic 
depth, and no danger of fancy running aground. We notice 
that it required a separate intention of the eye, a more free 
and abstracted vision, to see the reflected trees and the sky, 
than to see the river bottom merely ; and so are there mani- 
fold visions in the direction of every object, and even the 
most opaque reflect the heavens from their surface. Some men 
have their eyes naturally intended to the one and some to the 
other object." ^ 

Less than three hundred copies of the thousand com- 
prising this first edition were sold ; the remainder were 
thrown on the author's hands after four years' mute ap- 
peal in the bookstores. " I have now a library of nearly 
900 volumes," Thoreau wrote in his diary ; " over 700 
of which I wrote myself. Is it not well that the author 
should behold the fruit of his labor?" 

Yet Thoreau continued to write. Shortly after leav- 
ing college he had begun to keep a journal which was 
both diary and commonplace book ; and this journal 
he continued throughout his life. From this source he 
. 1 Riverside Edition, p. 94. 2- Riverside Edition, p. 59. 



182 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE' 

drew the material of the Week and of Waldeii as well 
as of his posthumous books and his lectures, essays, 
and addresses. The journal was also drawn upon bj'- 
others after his death to make books and magazine 
articles, and in 1906 was published in its entirety in 
fourteen volumes. 

Various articles by Thoreau were published in The 
Essays and Dial and, through the friendship and assist- 
Bxcursions. ^^^^ q£ Horace Greeley, in the New York 
magazines as well as in the Tribune itself. Thoreau 
made other excursions to the Maine woods, to Canada, 
to Cape Cod ; and these furnished fresh material for ob- 
servation and comment in his journal. He never mar- 
ried, he lived simply and unconventionally in his own 
independent way. Probably because of exposure — for. 
he gave little heed to the elements — he developed con- 
sumption, and died in his forty-fifth year, at his home 
in Concord. 

The ground of Thoreau's more recent popularity has 
been well summarized by Professor Trent: — 

"The years have favored him more than they have any 
Present ^^ ^^^ friends in The Dial group. Mankind has re- 
Place In turned more and more to nature, and at the same 
Literature, time has shown a preference for the minute, semi- 
scientific, semipoetic treatment of her which Thoreau was 
supereminently qualified to give, over the rhapsodical, pan- 
theistic treatment illustrated in the writings of Emerson and 
other transcendentalists, American and British." ^ 

The life of Thoreau in the American Men of Letters Seines 

. ^ . is by F. B. Sanborn ; a more serviceable biography 
AuthorlUes. . / . „ .< ^ , . , ^ txt • ^ • 

is that by Henry b. Salt, in the Great Writers oeries. 

Thoreau : His Home, Friends, and Books, by Annie Russell 

Marble, is a more intimate relation. A Biographical Sketch 

by Emerson is prefixed to Thoreau's Miscellanies, 

^ Trent's American Literature, p. 337. 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 183 

IV. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE : 1804-1864. 

In the historic town of Salem, well remembered for 
its sad delusion concerning witchcraft in colonial times, 
and better famed in New England tradition for many 
brighter and happier events, Nathaniel Hawthorne was 
born, July 4, 1804. William Hathorne,^ first of the line 
^^to appear in the colony, was an associate of Governor 
Winthrop, and was known as a persecutor of the Quak- 
ers; John, his son, was a judge, and left an unenviable 
reputation as a bitter searcher out of " witches," relent- 
less in the treatment of his victims. Many of the Haw- 
thornes were seafaring men — for during those years 
Salem was a thriving seaport and practically controlled 
the rich East Indian trade. Nathaniel's grandfather 
commanded a privateer in Kevolutionary times and fig- 
ures as the hero of the ballad on Bold Hathorne, The 
novelist's own father, also Nathaniel, was captain of a 
ship at an early age ; he died at Surinam only four 
years after his son was born. From the shock of this 
event Mrs. Hawthorne never recovered. To the end of 
her life, forty years afterward, she lived in seclusion, 
rarely emerging from her room, even taking her meals 
apart from her children. 

Under these peculiar conditions the child who was 
destined to take his place as the foremost Hawthorne's 
writer of fiction in America, and one of the CMidiiood. 
world's great romancers, passed into boyhood. It is not 
surprising that peculiarities of temperament were devel- 
oped, or that even as a child he was lonely, sensitive, and 
shy. When Nathaniel was nine years old, the family 
lived for a time in Maine. Their home was on the shore 
of Sebago Lake, in a region that was then almost wild, 

^ The name was spelled Hathorne or Hawthorne, according to fancy, 
down to the time of the author's own generation. 



184 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

where the boy enjoyed a freedom like that of the birds, 
but where the inclination for solitude was intensified. 
When Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College, in 1821, 
his habits of seclusion were in a measure 
broken. He was a healthy, hearty youth, slen- 
der, but finely built, handsome and athletic. His com- 
rades called him " Oberon." Here were begun two 
intimate and lifelong friendships that had no slight in- 
fluence in his later career : the friendships with Horatio 
Bridge and Franklin Pierce, later President of the 
United States. With Longfellow, also a classmate, 
Hawthorne seems to have had rather a slight acquaint- 
ance ; but this was cordially renewed in later years. 
The future story-teller was already meditating the pos- 
sibility of a literary career ; in the dedication of one 
of his volumes to his friend Bridge, he speaks of the 
fact. The passage gives us such a pleasing glimpse 
of these college days and intimacies that it deserves 
quoting : — 

" If anybody is responsible for my being at this day an 
author, it is yourself . I know not whence your faith came; but, 
while we were lads together at a country college, — gathering 
blueberries, in study-hours, under those tall academic pines ; 
or watching the great logs, as they tumbled along the current 
of the Androscoggin ; or shooting pigeons and gray squirrels 
in the woods ; or bat-fowling in the summer twilight ; or 
catching trouts in that shadowy little stream which, I sup- 
pose, is still wandering river-ward through the forest, — 
though you and I will never cast a line in it again, — two 
idle lads, in short (as we need not fear to acknowledge now), 
doing a hundred things that the Faculty never heard of, or 
else it had been the worse for us, — still it was your prognos- 
tic of your friend's destiny, that he was to be a writer of 
fiction." ^ 

^ Dedication of The Snow-Image and Other Tales, published in 
1851. 



186 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

Hawthorne was graduated in the class of 1825. It is 
matter of record that while in college his superiority in 
English composition was recognized by his instructors ; 
it is also clear from the passage quoted that at least one 
of his classmates already discerned the promise of the 
future in the gifts of imagination, insight, and budding 
genius. 

The ensuing ten years were spent by Hawthorne in 
his native city. His mother and sisters had 
again established themselves in their former 
home, and the peculiar habits of seclusion that had so 
colored Nathaniel's childhood were now resumed. The 
young man became a recluse. His meals were left be- 
fore the locked door of his room, from which he issued 
chiefly at night. However there were days when he 
paced, solitary, the breezy pastures of Salem Neck, 
which juts forth a mile or two out upon the island- 
strewn bay ; sometimes he turned toward the western 
suburbs, where he might stray for miles, uninterrupted 
and alone, over pasture roads bordered with sumach 
and barberry, or follow the upland ridge to the spot 
associated with gloomy memories of the fanatical 
severity of old Judge Hathorne and his associates in 
the witchcraft period, — the low eminence of Gallows 
Hill. We must not think, however, that it was Haw- 
thorne's desire to shun all human society. He trod the 
narrow winding streets of the ancient town with no 
slight stirrings of affection for the associations of the 
present and the past. He joined the groups of fisher- 
men loafing around their drying nets or sun-bleached 
lobster traps ; he mingled with sailor-men in their 
lounging-places, listening with an appreciative ear to 
their salty conversation. Of course Hawthorne had his 
acquaintance in the city ; but he was strangely diffi- 
dent, reserved, and silent ; many thought him morose. 



TWICE-TOLD TALES 187 

/•^ ■ 
It was a dreary ten year§, in his existence. "We do not 
even live at our house/ he once exclaimed pathetically. 

Yet Hawthorne was not idle. Shut in his chamber, 
he studied regularly if not systematically, and read 
widely. It was a period of reflection and experiment. 

his lonely chamber he pondered and brooded. " Here 
^y mind and character were formed," he wrote in 
1840. "And here I sat a long, long time, waiting pa- 
tiently for the world to know me, and sometimes won- 
dering why it did not know me sooner, or whether it 
would ever know me at all, — at least till I were in my 
grave. . . . By and by the world found me out in my 
lonely chamber, and called me forth. "^ 

He wrote — wrote much ; and burned much of what 
he wrote. His first venture in print was a novel, crude 
and not especially suggestive of the works that fol- 
lowed. This was .^Jm&Acmie, published anonymously in 
1828. It is a product of the first graduate years ; its 
scene is laid at "Harley College" and its characters are 
reminiscent of academic days. The book was suppressed 
by its author afterward, but, in 1879, was republished. 

With his sketches and short stories, the young author 
had better success. In these the note of ori- 
ginality was clearly struck, and their style, 
wonderfully delicate and refined, speedily commanded 
attention and praise, although their audience was lim- 
ited. They were published in the annuals (several ap- 
peared in the Boston Tohen^ edited by S. G. Goodrich, 
far-famed in that day under the pen name of " Peter 
Parley," as the author and compiler of books for chil- 
dren), in the Salem Gazette^ and in the New England 
Magazine. In 1837, by the kindly interest, unknown 
to Hawthorne, of his classmate, Horatio Bridge, the 
first collection was published under the title Twice- 

^ American Note-Books, October 4, 1840. 



188 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

Told Tales. Here were gathered the historical sketches, 
The Gray Chamjpion and The May- Pole of Merry- 
mount ; the strange study o£ Wakefield^ the man who 
could not enter his own home ; the delightful and now 
familiar Rill from the Town Pump ; the allegories, 
Pancfs Show Box^ The Great Carhuncle^ and TTie 
Prophetic Pictures^ — so suggestive of Hawthorne's 
fondness for symbolism ; as a boy he had counted The 
Faerie Quetne and Pilgrim^s Progress among his 
favorite books. Here also was the pathetic story of The 
Gentle Boy^ and, with others, the characteristic tale, 
Dr. Heidegger s Experiment. The future work of the 
romancer was fairly foreshadowed in this representa- 
tive collection. 

The Twice-Told 21??es attracted favorable notice and 

. sold to the extent of six or seven hundred 
Correspond- . i i . 

ence with copies. LiOngiellow made the volume the basis 
ong e ow. ^£ ^^ appreciative article in the North Ameri- 
can Review; and a friendly correspondence followed. 
Writing to Longfellow in June, 1837, Hawthorne 
speaks with strong feeling of his hermit-like existence 
during the past ten years. 

" I have secluded myself from society ; and yet I never 
meant any such thing, nor dreamed what sort of life I was 
going to lead. I have made a captive of myself, and put me 
into a dungeon and now I cannot find the key to let myself 
out, — and if the door were open, I should be almost afraid 
to come out. . . . For the last ten years, I have not lived, 
but only dreamed of living." ^ 

But the dreamer was already beginning to partici- 
pate in the joy of life. Under romantic circumstances, 
Hawthorne had made acquaintance with Miss Sophia 
Peabody — an acquaintance that soon ripened into love ; 

^ The entire letter is worthy of quotation ; it is given in Lathrop's 
Study of Hawthorne, p. 175. 



BROOK FARM 189 

and in the glow of this experience, the ice of diffidence 
and reserve was melted. 

As we have already seen, the administration of Presi- 
dent Van Buren, in its appointments to offi- ^j^^ Boston 
cial positions, was noticeably helpful to men Custom- 
of literary talents. George Bancroft, the his- 
torian, was at this time collector of the port at Boston ; 
in 1839, Nathaniel Hawthorne was made a weigher and 
ganger in the Boston custom-house. It is pathetic to 
think of genius thus compelled to labor for existence 
in uncongenial employment while his pen remains idle, 
but this was the experience of Robert Burns, and many 
others. So for two years the author of the Twice-Told 
Tales discharged his duties faithfully, weighing car- 
goes of salt or measuring coal — as he once described 
— "onboard a black little British schooner." Narrow 
though it was, the experience may have been not un- 
helpful in its opportunity for practical contact with 
men. 

Then came the year spent in the idealistic commu- 
nity at Brook Farm. Hawthorne was not a 
transcendentalist in the strict sense of the 
term, but this experiment in simple living, conjoined 
with high thinking, appealed to him ; association with 
those who formed the colony would be profitable, and 
possibly here he might find a congenial location for a 
permanent home after his marriage, which was to occur 
in the following year. With hearty zeal, he entered into 
the life of the community. He performed his share in 
all the labor of the farm — and it was strenuous enough. 

"At the first glimpse of fair weather," he writes to his sister, 
soon after arriving, " Mr. Ripley summoned us into the cow- 
yard, and introduced me to an instrument with four prongs, 
commonly entitled a dung-fork. With this tool I liave ah-eady 
assisted to load twenty or thirty carts. . . . Besides I have 



190 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

planted potatoes and pease, cut straw and hay for the cattle, 
and done various other mighty works." 

His sister, sympathetic and practical, wrote, in reply to 
another letter of similar tenor, — " What is the use of 
burning your brains out in the sun, if you can do some- 
thing better with them?" Possibly Hawthorne himself 
became somewhat doubtful of the desirability of pro- 
longing the experience ; at all events, before the twelve- 
month was quite up he withdrew from this interesting 
circle of enthusiasts, whose characteristics and plans have 
been described in a former chapter.^ In the American 
Note-Books^ we find many picturesque details of this 
experience, and in his Blithedale Romance., written 
ten years later, the community life is presented as the 
background of the fiction. 

In 1842, — when Hawthorne was thirty-eight, — oc- 
\ The Old curred his marriage to Miss Peabody, and 
Manse. tj^gj^ settlement in the " Old Manse " at Con- 
cord. Here for four years they lived happy and hopeful, 
in spite of the really straitened circumstances, due to 
slender income from literary work. But Hawthorne wrote 
busily, encouraged by evidences that his work was recog- 
nized and appreciated more and more widely as its volume 
increased. The second collection of the Twice-Told Tales 
appeared in 1842. The Journal of an African Cruiser 
( 1845 ) was edited for his friend Horatio Bridge, who 
had entered the American Navy and whose log-books 
supplied the material of this narrative. The stories and 
sketches produced during this period were published 
collectively in 1846, under the happily chosen title 
Mosses from an Old Manse. Although he never wholly 
lost his habit of reserve, — the tendency to aloofness 
which was in his nature, — Hawthorne was no longer a 
recluse. He met Emerson more or less frequently, al- 

^ See page 152. 



THE SCARLET LETTER 191 

though he "sought nothing from him as a philosopher." 
He listened courteously to the conversation of Margaret 
Fuller and the other members of that distinguished 
coterie ; but he writes in his Note-Books most enthu- 
siastically of excursions with Ellery Channing and 
Thoreau, " when we cast aside all irksome forms and 
straight-laced habitudes, and delivered ourselves up to 
the free air, to live like the Indians or any less conven- 
tional race, during one bright semicircle of the sun." 

This pleasant period of our author's life was termi- 
nated in 1846 by an appointment to the sur- 
veyorship at the custom-house in Salem. tom-House 
Once more the Hawthornes were domiciled ** saiem. 
in the city of their birth. There were two children in 
the household, a daughter, Una, born in Concord, and 
Julian, well known as a writer in our own day, whose 
birth occurred in Boston just before the removal to 
Salem. It is in his companionship with these children, 
gayly, even boisterously participating in their sports and 
pastimes, that we catch our pleasantest glimpses of 
Hawthorne in this period. In 1849, following his en- 
forced retirement from office, — the result of political 
schemes, — Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter. 

Although Hawthorne's reputation as a writer of tales 
was already well established, it was through ^^^ scarlet 
this remarkable novel that his mastery in Letter, 
the field of romantic fiction was really revealed. In this 
narrative the inheritance of ancestral tradition is easily 
perceived ; so, too, the influence of the old New England 
religious atmosphere. The fact of sin and its effects on 
the soul, the workings of conscience, the problems of 
repentance and atonement, — these are the themes with 
which Hawthorne works in the strong and impressive 
narrative of Hester Prynne, the young minister, Artliur 
Dimmesdale, and the elfish child, little Pearl. The 



192 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

sombre background of Puritan bigotry and persecution 
affords a setting as effective as it is appropriate. In 
construction and form it is beautifully developed, 
while its verbal style is exceptional in its delicacy and 
beauty. " The finest piece of imaginative writing yet 
put forth in this country ; '' so Henry James describes 
it.^ The essay on The Custom-House^ prefatory to 
the novel, is one of the most charming of Hawthorne's 
sketches. The picture of his associates at the seat of 
custom, humorous and ironical in tone, was, perhaps, 
too true to life to be relished ; at all events (when this 
essay was read by his fellow citizens) irritation followed, 
and there was a general expression of hostility toward 
the novelist. He soon removed from Salem. 

For a year and a half the Hawthornes lived in Lenox, 
among the Berkshire Hills, — the beautiful re- 
gion in western Massachusetts where William 
Cullen Bryant had passed his early years. Here Haw- 
thorne wrote The House of the Seven Gables (1851), 
the only one of his romances the scene of which is actu- 
ally laid in Salem. This novel, thought by its author to 
be a greater work than The Scarlet Letter^ is recog- 
nized as one of his best productions, although not placed 
above its predecessor. The working out of an ancient 
curse invoked upon the head of a family line is the 
theme of the romance. 

It must not be forgotten that this writer of weird tales 
^j^g and of sombre romance was also a successful 

Children's story-teller for children, and that his essays in 
this field are still favorites among the chil- 
dren's classics. Here belong the earlier collections, like 
Grandfather's Chair (1841) and BiograjMcal Stories 
(1842), which have not been previously mentioned. 
From the grim pages of The House of the Seven Gables, 

^ Life of Hawthorne (English Men of Letters Series). 



THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE 193 

Hawthorne now turned to the preparation of the de- 
lightful Wonder- Booh for Girls and Boys (1852); 
and here, with a fascinating freshness of style, simply, 
yet beautifully, he recounts the Greek myths of Midas, 
Pandora, of Hercules in Quest of the Golden Apples, 
Bellerophon and the Chimera, of Baucis and Philemon, 
of Perseus and Medusa. A second series of classical 
myths presented in the same entertaining manner ap- 
peared in Tanglewood Tales (1853). 

During a brief temporary residence in "West Newton, 
Hawthorne wrote The BUthedale Romance^ ^^^ 
not one of his most attractive works. It is a Biithedaio 
sombre tale, but commands a peculiar inter- 
est because reminiscent of the sojourn at Brook Farm 
and some of its associations. The romance was not pub- 
lished until the following year (1852), when the Haw- 
thornes were once more living in Concord, where the 
novelist had bought a cottage, — it was the home of 
the Alcotts, — to which the name of " The Wayside " 
was now given. Unhappily this house is not associated 
with the creation of any noteworthy work. 

In 1852, the writer of romances took time to prepare 
a campaign biography — a life of his old class- consulship 
mate and ever loyal friend, Franklin Pierce, ^^^^'^^rpooi. 
Following Pierce's election as President, Hawthorne 
was formally appointed United States Consul at Liver- 
pool, and in July, 1853, sailed with his family for 
England. There he remained until he resigned his 
office in 1857. No literary work marks this period of 
four years' English residence, except the usual minute 
record of observation and experience comprised in Haw- 
thorne's interesting note-books. 

The next two years were passed in Italy, mainly in 
Rome. It was for the most part a pleasing and illu- 
minating sojourn. The associations with American resi- 



194 PHILOSOPHY AND KOMANCE 

dents, notably with Story, the sculptor, were stimulat- 
ing. The serious illness of the daughter, Una, 
The Marble cast a cloud upon the last few months of the 
*"*■ stay in Kome, yet here Hawthorne collected 

the material for what was to prove his last and most 
popular romance. During a summer in Florence, the 
family occupied a romantic villa '' with a moss-grown 
tower " which had the reputation of being haunted. " I 
mean to take it away bodily and clap it into a romance 
which I have in my head," Hawthorne wrote in his note- 
books ; and thus was Hilda's airy nest in TJie Marble 
Faun projected. In the spring of 1859, the Hawthornes 
returned to England, where the new romance was com- 
pleted. It was published in England in the early part 
of 1860, under the title Transformation^ and simulta- 
neously in America as The Marble Faun. The Haw- 
thornes then came home. 

The story of 27ie Marble Faun, again, is psycholo- 
gical ; it deals with the development of a soul under 
the influence of a committed sin. The central figure 
is that of Donatello, a youth whose resemblance to the 
sculptured faun of Praxiteles is so marked as to sug- 
gest that he himself is but half human, his free and 
apparently irresponsible nature confirming the suspi- 
cion. Through participation in a crime, the soul of Don- 
atello appears to be awakened, and we infer that his 
humanity begins in the self -revelation which follows his 
sin. The effects of this act upon characters of con- 
trasted types is subtly worked out : upon Miriam, the 
chief actor in the crime ; upon Hilda, who is only a 
witness, but whose intensely moral soul — puritan of 
the puritans that she is — suffers most keenly of all. 
The pure-minded, sweet-souled Hilda, feeding the doves 
as they flock daily about her ancient tower, and in her 
hour of self-torture groping for relief from the sense of 



THE MARBLE FAUN 195 

contamination which comes only from her knowledge 
of another's crime, — this is, for most readers, the most 
attractive character in the book. There is much con- 
cerning Italian art in The Marble Faun^ at least much 
concerning sculpture ; this fact and also the circum- 
stance that historic spots are picturesquely described, 
have made something of a glorified guide-book of the 
romance, and have enhanced its value in the eyes of 
many. But Hawthorne is not a sound critic of art. The 
Marble Faun should be read for its story and its 
characters, and the problems they present. 

Once more the romancer and his family occupied 
" The Wayside." Full recognition of Haw- closing 
thorne's peculiar genius had been won ; among Years. 
American writers he was regarded essentially the fore- 
most. Yet the four years of life remaining were not 
very happy ones. Various circumstances and events 
conspired to create depression and to recall the old 
spirit of aloofness and reserve. His daughter. Rose,' 
at this period ten or twelve years old, gives this de- 
scription of her father : — 

*' I always felt a great awe of him, — a tremendous sense of 
his power. His large eyes, liquid with blue and white light 
and deep with dark shadows, told me, even when I was very 
young, that he was in some respects different from other 
people. . . . We were usually a silent couple when off for 
a walk together, or when we met by chance in the household. 
... I longed myself to hear the splendidly grotesque fairy 
tales . . . which Una and Julian had reveled in when our 
father had been at leisure in Lenox and Concord." 

Hawthorne was greatly agitated by the breaking out 
of civil war. His politics identified him with the un- 

* Rose Hawthorne became the wife of George P. Lathrop, biogra- 
pher of Hawthorne. 



196 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

popular party in the North, and his stanch loyalty to 
his friend Pierce, then in disfavor, seemed to arouse in 
a degree public sentiment against himself. From his 
English note-books he had culled material which was 
published under the title Our Old Home, in 1863 ; 
this volume, in spite of some protests from his friends, 
he insisted upon dedicating to Franklin Pierce. The 
appropriateness of the dedication is easily seen ; and 
probably it was appreciated by most of Hawthorne's 
readers then ; still the novelist felt somewhat the 
stigma of personal unpopularity. He became despond- 
ent and his splendid health rapidly declined. He could 
not advance with the literary work in hand. He made 
a journey to Washington with his intimate friend, 
Ticknor, the publisher, in the endeavor to shake off 
his weariness and depression. Ticknor died suddenly 
in Philadelphia, and Hawthorne returned, very ill. 
Early in May, 1864, Mr. Pierce proposed that his 
former classmate should accompany him on a tour 
through the White Mountains, and the novelist left his 
home in Concord with a last farewell. At a hotel in 
Plymouth, New Hampshire, after his journey, Haw- 
thorne retired to rest — and fell asleep. 

On the 23d of May, the body of our great ro- 
mance-writer was laid in the village burial-place at 
Concord, a most distinguished company following to 
the grave. Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, and Holmes 
were in the group. They were all his friends and ad- 
mirers of his genius. The manuscript of the unfinished 
work, 77ie DoUiver Romance, was laid on the coffin. 
It was this funeral which inspired Longfellow's tender 
tribute to Hawthorne : — 

" Now I look back, and meadow, manse, and stream 
Dimly my thought defines ; 
I only see — a dream within a dream — 
The hill-top hearsed with pines. 



PLACE IN LITERATURE 197 

" I only hear above his place of rest 
Their tender undertone, 
The infinite longing's of a troubled breast, 
The voice so like his own. 

" There in seclusion and remote from men 
The wizard hand lies cold, 
Which at its topmost speed let fall the pen, 
And left the tale half told." l 

The appearance of Hawthorne's writings did not cease 
with his death. The note-books, so continu- ^^^^^ 
ously and so carefully kept, have been drawn Putiica- 
upon, and much of their material published. 
Passages from the American Note-Boohs (1868), 
JEnglish Note-Boohs (1870), and French and Italian 
Note-Boohs (1871) have thus appeared. In 1872, the 
romance, SejAimius Felton^ unrevised and therefore 
unfinished, was published. A few fragmentary scenes 
from The Dolliver Romance were included in a vol- 
ume with other hitherto unpublished pieces in 1876. 
The youthful production, Fanshawe^ was reprinted. 
Another unfinished romance, Dr. Grimshawe' s Sec7'et, 
was issued in 1883, together with more sketches, tales, 
and studies. In the same year there appeared an edi- 
tion of the Complete Worhs. 

Hawthorne's place in our literature is established : 
he is the most commanding figure that Amer- piacein 
ica has produced in the field of romance. The Literature, 
universal superiority of his genius has been challenged 
by more than one critic ; yet others have granted him 
the highest distinction even in this broader field. Henry 
James describes him as " the most beautiful and most 
eminent representative of a literature ; ... in the field 
of letters . . . the most valuable example of the Amer- 
ican genius." ^ Some points in comparison may be help- 

^ Hawthorne, H. W. Long-fellow. 

2 Life of Hawthorne {English Men of Letters Series). 



198 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

ful. It is obvious that he is altogether original; Irving, 
in his sketches, was as obviously working after earlier 
English models. Hawthorne's peculiar choice of theme 
— the study of influences, supernatural in the noblest 
sense, acting on the human soul in its development — 
lifts his effort to a much higher plane than was reached 
by Cooper, admirable story-teller that he was. Haw- 
thorne's one contemporary rival in the domain of the 
short story was Edgar Allan Poe ; while Hawthorne 
lacks the intensity and passion of Poe, he also escapes 
the morbidness which mars the beauty of Poe's art. 
In spite of occasional vagueness in outline and in de- 
tails, together with an inclination to allegory which is 
perhaps too mechanical to be accepted as one of the 
best methods of literary art, Nathaniel Hawthorne is 
emphatically our greatest master in romantic fiction ; 
and in that peculiar field in which he worked he re- 
mains unique. 

The volume of his production is by no means small. 
We count but four successful romances completed ; one 
of these, however, The Scarlet Letter^ is acknowledged 
by all critics to be the strongest work of fiction yet pro- 
duced in America, and two of the other three, The House 
of Seven Gables and The Marble Faun^ are admirable 
examples of narrative art. But Hawthorne's numerous 
tales and sketches must also be taken into account. Many 
of them stand forth with marks of high distinction. Tlie 
Gentle Boy^ The Snow-Image^ The Great Stone Face^ 
The Ambitious Guest^ — these are fine examples of the 
short story, as then conceived, in quiet tone ; Wakefield, 
Ethan Brand, Dr. Heidegger s Experiment, Roger 
Malviji's Burial, Young Goodman Brown, The White 
Old Maid, and RappaccinV s Daughter have the weird- 
ness and the fantasy of more pronounced romance. The 
historical sketches like The Gray Champion, The May- 



SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 199 

Pole of Merrymount^ and the Legends of the Province 
House are unsurpassed in tlieir kind. The allegories like 
Fancy's Show Box, The Birthmark, and Earth's Holo- 
caust perhaps do not call for especial praise, but the 
sketches based on realities, of which we should note 
particularly A Rill from the Town Pump, Main Street^ 
The Old Manse, and the essay on The Custom-House^ 
are well worthy of admiration. 

It is a wonderful collection — the product of a won- 
derful imagination, fantastic, sometimes grotesque, al- 
ways subtle, always expressing itself in a style of the 
utmost delicacy and charm. Hawthorne was ever an 
idealist. Whether it was a result of his " tendency to 
aloofness," his early years of solitude and contemplation, 
or not, he had somehow received the gift of insight which 
showed him the human heart. Certainly he achieved in 
unusual degree the story-teller's art. 

The reader may make his own selection from the various 
groups of Hawthorne's tales mentioned in preced- suggestions 
ing paragraphs ; but on no account should he miss *<"^ Reading, 
the introductory essays which accompany Mosses from an 
Old Manse and The Scarlet Letter ; he will also find it in- 
teresting and worth while to dip here and there in the Amer- 
ican Note-Books. 

While Julian Hawthorne's Nathaniel Haivthorne and his 
Wife will rank as chief authority, A Study of Haw- 
thorne, by George Parsons Lathrop, will prove more 
generally useful, and the admirable brief sketch of Hawthorne 
(in the Beacon Biogi'aphies) by Mrs. Fields may be used to 
good advantage. Mrs. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's Memories 
of Hawthorne, and the Recollections of Hawthorne, by Ho- 
ratio Bridge, are especially recommended. Henry James is 
the author of the Hawthorne in the English Men of Letters 
Series and Moncure D. Conway of that in the Great Writers 
Series. In Yesterdays ivith Authors, by James T. Fields, and 
the essays Hawthorne and The Works of Nathaniel Haw- 



200 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

thorne, by George W. Curtis {Literary and Social Essays ), 
will be found picturesque and suggestive glimpses of this strange 
personality. Professor Trent's American Literature contains a 
most comprehensive study of Hawthorne's literary work. The 
only editions of Hawthorne's complete works are published by 
Houghton Mifflin Company. 



V. EDGAR ALLAN POE : 1809-1849. 

Four and a half years after the date of Hawthorne's 
birth, there was born in Boston another child of eccen- 
tric genius, — like the lonely orphaned boy in Salem 
destined to literary fame as a dreamer of romance, — 
and, alas, destined also to a career unique in the history 
of American letters for its brevity, its pathos, and its 
tragedy. 

Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809. That 
his birth occurred in Boston was due to the 
fact that his parents, members of a theatrical 
company, were filling an engagement in that city when 
the event occurred. David Poe, the father of the child, 
was a Southerner, a native of Baltimore, where the 
Poes were people of character and standing. Connec- 
tion with the parental home had ceased, however, when 
the young man had recklessly pushed his law-books 
aside for an uncertain career upon the stage. He was 
never a brilliant actor ; the lady whom he married was 
by far his superior in their profession, and possessed 
the more vigorous personality of the two. It was from 
his mother that Edgar inherited his artistic tempera- 
ment ; while the prevailing weaknesses of the boy's 
later life, it is safe to assert, were a natural inheritance 
from his father. Within a year of Edgar's birth, his 
father died, and a year or two later Mrs. Poe also died, 
at Richmond, Virginia, in poverty, leaving three young 
children to the charitv of friends. A Mrs. Allan, wife 



EDGAR ALLAN FOE 201 

of a tobacco merchant of Richmond, had become inter- 
ested in the suffering family, and took Edgar into her 
home. 

The black-eyed, curly-haired boy, handsome and pre- 
cocious, soon won his way into the affections 
of Mr. and Mrs. Allan. He was given the Adopted 
name of his foster parents, was made the pet 
of the household, and treated with a degree of indul- 
gence far from wise. One of his accomplishments was 
the ability to declaim childish speeches before the din- 
ner guests, when the table was cleared for dessert, and 
to pledge the health of the company in wine — " with 
roguish grace." 

In 1815, Mr. Allan went to England, taking his 
family with him. Edgar, then six years old, gchooi- 
was placed in the Manor House School, in a Days, 
suburb of London, and there he remained five years. 
The associations of this period left a strong and not 
unpleasant impression on the boy's memory ; they are 
recalled with some detail in the story William Wilson, 
At this old and typical English school, the youth was 
brought in contact with much that was ancient, with 
many reminders of great historic characters and events. 
He studied Latin and French, participated in all out- 
door sports, and, before the close of his residence, had 
begun to write occasional verse. The principal of the 
school had " remarked nothing in Edgar Allan, as he 
was called, except that he was clever, but spoilt by 'an 
extravagant amount of pocket money.' " ^ 

Upon the return of the family to America in 1820, 
the boy continued his studies at a private school in 
Richmond, where he appeared to be a quick and bril- 
liant pupil, although not always steady or accurate in 
scholarship. He excelled in athletics, was a skillful 

^ Woodberry's Edgar Allan Poe, p. 19. 



202 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

boxer and a daring swimmer ; having, it is said, one hot 
June day, swum six miles in the James River, against 
a strong tide. Like Byron, he was very proud of this 
accomplishment. 

The University of Virginia had been opened under 
^YiQ the patronage of Thomas Jefferson in 1825. 

University. At the beginning of 1826, Poe, then seven- 
teen, placed his name upon the register of students. 
In the convivial atmosphere of undergraduate fellow- 
ship, habits of irresponsibility and reckless indulgence 
were easily acquired. To such habits this proud, im- 
pulsive, and highly strung youth was especially sus- 
ceptible. At the same time there was a reserve and a 
self-absorption that checked intimacy. His classmates 
hardly knew him except as a person of high spirit. His 
favorite diversion was to wander off for a long, solitary 
ramble among the outlying hills of the Ragged Moun- 
tains, giving rein to his fancy and returning to his asso- 
ciates with some wild romance, — story or poem, — which 
he would recite for their pleasure. He was fairly regular 
in attendance on the exercises, and at the end of the 
year secured honors in French and Latin. He had also, 
unfortunately, accumulated gambling debts to a large 
amount, and when the year closed, Mr. Allan withdrew 
Poe from the University, refused to pay the debts thus 
incurred, and set the young man at work in his counting- 
room. Smarting under a sense of injustice in the severity 
of his foster father's treatment, Poe ran away to Boston 
and enlisted in the army under the name of E. A. Perry. 
But he first secured the publication of his earliest vol- 
ume, Tamerlane and Other Poems^ which appeared in 
the spring of 1827. 

Poe's record in the service was an honorable one. 
In two years' time he had been promoted to the rank 
of sergeant-major, for merit. Then occurred the death 



204 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

of Mrs. Allan, and this brought a reconciliation. Mr. 

„^ . Allan secured Edo^ar's release from the serv- 

The Army , . " 

and ice in January, 1829, and not long thereafter 

westPo t. Q|3tained his appointment as a cadet in the 
military academy at West Point. Poe entered the acad- 
emy in July, and for a time performed his duties with 
credit. Then he became discontented and despondent, 
neglected all obligations, was court-martialed and dis- 
missed, in January, 1831. This made the breach with 
Mr. Allan complete and final. 

A second edition of his poems had been published 
by Poe at Richmond, while waiting for his 
appointment to the academy in 1829. There 
had been additions to the volume issued at Boston, two 
years before. Al Aaraqf, a vague and mystical poem, 
the longest of Poe's compositions, was added to the 
first collection. It reflects the influence of Shelley, as 
the earlier poem, Tamerlane^ suggests the influence of 
Byron. After the dismissal from West Point, a third 
edition, entitled simply Poems (1831), was brought out 
by Poe in New York. Here were included some of his 
finest compositions: To Helen^ Isrqfel^ The City in 
the Sea^ Lenore^ and The Valley of Unrest} Already 
his verse had acquired its haunting music — already 
found its note of melancholy. 

Now began Poe's struggle with fate. The panorama 
of his " most stormy life " ^ is a lurid one. A hurried 
glimpse will be sufficient. For two or three years he 
made his home in Baltimore with his father's sister, Mrs. 
Clemm. He wrote for magazines and did all kinds of 
literary hackwork. The romantic tales were now begun, 
and one of these, ilf/S'. found in a Bottle^ secured, in 
1833, a prize of one hundred dollars offered by a weekly 

1 Several of these poems were subsequently altered and improved. 

2 See Poe's poem Alone. 



EDITORIAL WORK 205 

literary paper in Baltimore. This success brought Poe 
some timely friends who helped him to an editorial 
position on the Southern Literary Messenger at a 
salary of $500. This magazine was published at Rich- 
mond, whither Poe now returned. 

To the Messenger Poe contributed a few tales and 
poems, none of which is now recognized as of Editorial 
more than minor importance. But it was as a Work, 
critic that Poe now startled the readers — and the writers 
— of that day. There had been some attempts at literary 
criticism by American writers before this ; an article by 
Bryant in the North American Review^ in 1818, has 
already been mentioned,^ and there were some literary 
studies written about the same time by Richard Henry 
Dana, which are properly termed critical ; but there had 
been no such outspoken and vigorous reviews as were 
now produced by Poe. The noteworthy fact concern- 
ing them is not that they were trenchant, but that they 
were based upon certain definite principles of criticism, 
formulated by Poe, and consistently followed by him 
in his own literary work. It is an evidence of the in- 
tellectual versatility of the poet that he appears con- 
spicuously in this field also — and as a pioneer. The 
Literary Messenger now came to be recognized as one 
of the leading magazines of the country, if not the fore- 
most ; and Poe's prospects appeared very bright. In 
1836 he married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, the beau- 
tiful and talented child-wife — then not quite fourteen 
years of age — whom with passionate devotion the poet 
loved and cherished until her pathetic and miserable 
death in 1847. But the journalistic career which had 
begun so promisingly was interrupted by the habits of 
indulgence which were to prove the ruin of Poe. In 
January, 1837, he lost his position on the Messenger 
^ See pag'e 136. 



206 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

and removed to New York. In 1838, he published his 
longest story, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, 

Philadelphia now seemed to offer Poe a better op- 
in pwia- portunity for success ; and, in the summer of 
deipMa. 1838^ he proceeded thither. Here the poet 
seems to have made a successful effort to recover his 
self-control. For a long period he appears to have re- 
frained altogether from the use of wine. 

This is the period of Poe's strongest work. The Tales 
of the Grotesque and the Arabesque were published in 
two volumes at the end of 1839 — two years after the 
appearance of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales. In his 
critical reviews of this period, Poe is even more inde- 
pendent and emphatic than in the Messenger articles. 
He made a notorious attack upon Longfellow, repeated 
at various times, charging the New England poet with 
gross plagiarism. While Longfellow bore Poe's attacks 
with unfailing equanimity, this was not the case with all 
who suffered ; not a few of his victims became bitter 
personal enemies of the imperious reviewer. 

Poe now enters a new field of fiction, of which he may 
The Anaiyt- be regarded as the discoverer ; this is the story 
leal Tales, jj^ which a mystery is apparently solved by 
analysis and reason. The modern detective story is our 
present popular example of the type. Poe's analytical 
powers were remarkable. When the opening chapters of 
Dickens's novel Barnahy Rudge appeared, Poe forecast 
from them the entire plot of the novel. The solution of 
papers written in cipher (cryptographs) was a favorite 
pastime with him. He declared that no one could invent 
a cipher that he could not solve ; and at one period he 
was kept busy deciphering specimens of enigmatic pro- 
ductions of this sort. It was in 1841 that Poe's master- 
piece in this kind of fiction. The Murders of the Rue 
Morgue^ appeared. This was followed by another nar- 



EDITOR OF PERIODICALS 207 

rative, The Mystery of Marie Roget^ in w hich the au- 
thor applied his method in the study of an actual murder 
mystery which occurred in New York. In 1843 was pub- 
lished The Gold Bug, the third in this group of real- 
istic narratives, the most popular of all his tales. This, 
also, was a competitive story and brought its writer a 
second one-hundred-dollar prize. 

Again Poe enjoyed unusual advantages. In 1839, he 
became associate editor of Burton's Maga- Again an 
zine, one of the most successful periodicals ^"^*"- 
of the time. But he quarreled with his principal and 
lost his position before the close of 1840. Within a 
month or two, however, he had been made the editor of 
Graham's Magazine, as important a publication as 
Burton 8 ; and then, for some irregularity the nature of 
which is unknown, again he was discharged. Although 
all evidence indicates that Poe had fairly conquered 
his old vice of intemperance during these years, there 
is unhappily other evidence that he was using opium. 
The main cause of his journalistic failures, however, 
probably lay in the temperament of the man himself. 
Eccentric, irritable, self-willed, as audacious in his 
treatment of others as he was sensitive to their treat- 
ment of him, it is not strange that this singular man, 
who did not lack admirers or friends, was unable to 
retain business associations with them. In society, when 
he chose to enter it, both in Philadelphia and later 
in New York, he was a marked figure. He was often 
serious and silent; but his broad and pallid brow, 
large piercing eyes, his gracious manner when he did 
converse, and his remarkably melodious voice gave a 
peculiar charm to his presence. In his home, to both wife 
and mother, he was the embodiment of kindness and 
tenderness. 

From Philadelphia, the Poes removed to New York 



208 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

in 1844, and the struggle for existence became acute, 
jjjjjg^ In the course of the first year of residence 
York. in New York, Poe made the acquaintance of 

Willis, the most popular and most influential member 
of the Knickerbocker group. Willis at once made a 
place for Poe on his paper, the Evening Mirror, Thus 
it was that in this paper, in January, 1845, Poe pub- 
lished jThe Haven. The appearance of this poem — 
perhaps the most widely known of all American poems 
— gave Poe a national reputation. It was copied in 
well-nigh every newspaper in the land. Again the fu- 
ture looked bright for one whom people now hailed as 
the foremost among American poets. The Tales were 
re-published. All of his poetical compositions that he 
wished to preserve were collected and published under 
the title of The Raven^ and Other Poems, Moreover 
he had become in this year, 1845, editor and proprietor 
of the Broadway Journal, But with the close of the 
year the Journal was abandoned, and Poe was left with 
a substantial debt. 

In 1846, the family was established in a little cottage 

^. ^ of the humblest description at Fordham, now 
Disaster. . , , i r. i t. ^ • i • 

m the borough of the Bronx, then not withm 

the limits of the city. Mrs. Clemm had become — and 

not for the first time — the mainstay of the household. 

Virginia was dying with consumption. Poe himself was 

broken in health. Half insane with anxiety and grief, 

he had lapsed into the old excesses. Before the year 

closed they were in absolute destitution. The death of 

Virginia occurred in January, 1847, under conditions 

too painful to be described. 

The two years which followed were pitiable enough. 

„^ „ , After the poet had in a measure recovered his 
The End. ^ 

shattered health, he employed himself in va- 
rious efforts without much success. He wrote a long 



POE'S PERSONALITY 209 

and elaborate essay, which he called Eureka ; it was an 
attempt to explain the existence of the universe. He 
thought that he had solved the mystery of creation. 
But these conceptions of his erratic imagination have no 
scientific value. Of more worth are the poems, written 
during this period, Ulalume^ The Bells, For Annie^ 
and Annabel Lee, — this last-named ballad a poignant 
memory of the child-wife, Virginia. In 1849, Poe was 
again in Richmond, hoping to get aid to establish a new 
magazine. On the last day of September he departed 
on his return to New York, and stopped over in Balti- 
more to see some friends. He was drinking heavily. 
On the 3d of October — it being an election day — 
Poe was found, unconscious and in wretched plight, 
in a rear room of a rum-shop, used as a polling-place. 
Friends were summoned and the unfortunate man 
was conveyed to a hospital. On the 7th of October, 
without regaining his senses, he died — dismally. His 
last words were : " Lord help my poor soul ! " The 
next morning, five friends of the poet followed his body 
to its cheerless burial in the old cemetery of West- 
minster Church. 

Such in outline is the tragic story of Edgar Allan 
Poe. To add to these details would be to emphasize its 
sordid aspects rather than to brighten it. The 
blighted career, the disastrous climax of his 
misfortune can excite but one feeling — a profound 
pity for this unhappy soul, 

" whom unmerciful Disaster 
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore." 

Yet over this strange personality critics have con- 
tended more fiercely than over any other in our literary 
annals.^ At the same time we may say that no Amer- 

^ With respect to Poe's principal failing we can do no better than 



210 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

ican poet lives more vividly in the meraory of his coun- 
trymen than Edgar Allan Poe ; nor is there any other 
that in the eye of Europe ranks as high as he. Already 
before his death, French writers had detected in Poe's 
works a quality that appealed strongly to their artistic 
sense ; his poems and tales were translated into their 
language, later into Spanish and German also. To the 
present time, Germany, Spain, and France regard the 
author of The Haven as the supreme representative of 
the West in literary art. 

Let us look briefly at Poe's actual achievement, re- 
membering — if in volume his imaginative work ap- 
pears disappointing — that he died at forty ; and that 
during the too brief years of his working life he was 
beset with weaknesses and embarrassed by failures such 
as occurred in the experience of no other American 
writer of first rank. His productions fall into three 
groups : the critical articles, the tales, and the poems. 

Poe was, as has been said, a pioneer in this country 
PoQ gg in the field of serious criticism. As matter of 
a Critic. fact, nearly half of his literary work is of this 
nature. Besides the pungent reviews of contemporary 
writers, the critical essays on The Rationale of Eng- 
lish Verse and The Poetic Principle must not be for- 

refer to his own statement in a letter to one of his intimate friends, 
dated Philadelphia, April 1, 1841. 

"At no period of my life was I ever what men call intemperate. I 
never was in the habit of intoxication. . . . But for a brief period, 
while I resided in Richmond, and edited the Messenger I certainly did 
give way, at long' intervals, to the temptation held out on all sides by 
the spirit of Southern conviviality. My sensitive temperament could 
not stand an excitement which was an everyday matter to my com- 
panions. In short, it sometimes happened that I was completely intox- 
icated. For some days after each excess I was invariably confined to bed. 
But it is now quite four years since I have abandoned every kind of al- 
coholic drink — four years, with the exception of a single deviation." 

This letter is quoted iu full in Woodberry's Edgar Allan Poe, pp. 
130-133. 



AS A ROMANCER 211 

gotten. He was not always a sound critic ; he was not 
infallible in his judgments, and in some of his attacks 
he was inspired by jealousy or prejudice. But it is re- 
membered that he was one of the earliest to recognize 
the genius of Mrs. Browning and of Tennyson ; that he 
applauded Dickens from the start ; that he was one of 
the first to discover Hawthorne, and wrote warmly of 
his work — although he later denied his originality and, 
characteristically, declared that Hawthorne had stolen 
some material from his own tale of William Wilson. 
For Lowell's verse Poe had nothing but praise ; and 
Longfellow — in spite of his own ill-tempered attack — 
he placed at the head of American poets. He also noted 
the limitations of Irving, Cooper, and Bryant ; and in 
much of his criticism he has been justified by time. 
The general effect of his critical work was apparently 
helpful in the development of American literature. 

Poe wrote some seventy tales of greatly varying 
merit. These can be considered but briefly ^^^ 
and in groups. We find, first, narratives of Romancer, 
romantic adventure, typified by MS. found in a Bottle^ 
intense in its suggestions of the mysterious and un- 
earthly. His longest piece of fiction, TJie Narrative of 
Arthur Gordon Pyjn, inspired, perhaps, by the popu- 
lar success of Cooper's romances of the sea, is as real- 
istic in its employment of commonplace and minute 
details as any of the narratives of Defoe, the first great 
master of realism in fiction. Poe's imaginative power 
is exhibited in vivid pictures of murder, mutiny, ship- 
wreck, and starvation, which are gruesome enough, 
and sometimes become so morbid as to be offensive to 
sound taste ; but in the conclusion of the tale his poetic 
imagination asserts itself in wonderful descriptions of 
an unknown land and of the mysterious white sea of 
the Antarctic. In A Descent into the Maelstrom, we 



212 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

have the finest example of this group, realistic, poetical, 
and thoroughly impressive. The Adventures of one 
Hans Pfaal, like the subsequent story, The Balloon 
Hoax^ is based upon the possibilities, real and romantic, 
ef aerial navigation, and is a prototype of such pseudo- 
scientific fiction as the romances of Jules Verne. Poe 
makes a brave display of scientific knowledge in all 
these tales — a knowledge which is superficial in fact, 
although effective in the machinery of his realism. 

Another group contains the analytical tales, which 
Poe himself called " tales of ratiocination," because their 
appeal is to the reasoning faculty rather than to the 
emotions. The presentation of a mystery the solution of 
which is to follow is always fascinating, and Poe's do- 
minion over his reader is nowhere more complete than 
in these tales. That the romancer, having first built up 
his mystery, is obviously only retracing his own steps 
in the working out of its solution, does not at all affect 
the interest of his story; for here his art is strong 
enough to produce the illusion that the reader is watch- 
ing the first unraveling of the plot. The Gold Bug ^ 
The Murders of the Rue Morgue^ The Mystery of 
Marie Roget^ and The Purloined Letter still remain 
our best examples, at least in the short-story form, of 
this class of fiction. 

Working more closely in the field cultivated by Haw- 
thorne, Poe produced also a group of romantic tales in 
which conscience is the theme. Williain Wilson^ the 
narrative of a man with a double, is the best; it might 
have been the suggestion of Stevenson's Dr, Jehyll and 
Mr. Hyde. Here are to be included, also, the horrible 
story of The Black Cat, The Tell- Tale Heart, and 
Thou art the Man. But Poe's most effective tales are 
those which are carefully, elaborately designed to pro- 
duce a vivid effect on the reader's mind. Foremost 



AS A POET 213 

among these is the remarkable fantasy The Fall of the 
House of Usher^ a masterpiece of literary art, wherein 
every sentence is significant and almost every word a 
contribution to the dismal effect. Here belongs, also. 
The Masque of the Red Deaths with its weird use of 
colors, its atmosphere of revelry invaded by the horror 
of the plague. Ligeia, a fantasy of transmigration, 
The Cask of Amontillado, a study in revenge, and 
Ho'p-Frocj, in which the same theme again appears, 
grotesquely treated, fall in the same group. The 
morbid element is conspicuous in all. Death, horrible 
and ghastly, — pestilence, — dissolution, — the awaken- 
ing of the dead, — the awakening of those prematurely 
buried: these are the instruments of horrible sugges- 
tiveness which are here employed. It is no wonder that 
one's flesh creeps as he reads — that was in the design. 

Poe had little of the sense of humor. He wrote, how- 
ever, a number of extravaganzas with intent to make 
them humorous. In one. The Devil in the Belfry, he suc- 
ceeded fairly. Another phase of his fancy is discovered 
in two beautiful landscape pictures, masterpieces of 
natural description. The Domain of Arnheim and Dan- 
dor's Cottage, pure idealizations of romantic scenery 
worthy of a poet's dream. 

If the volume of Poe's verse is small, there is an un- 
usual proportion of compositions that attain 
the perfection of form. The best of them are 
exquisite embodiments of Poe's own theories regarding 
his art. Poetry and music were allied in his mind, the 
aim in both to produce an impression. The poetical 
effect, he said, could be prolonged only to a certain 
limit ; and that he placed at about one hundred lines. 
He had no sympathy with the idea that poetry should 
inculcate a moral ; this idea he termed " the heresy of 
the Didactic," and soundly rated the New England 



214 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

poets for their inclination so to write. Poetry he defined 
as " the rhythmical creation of beauty." The poetic 
principle manifests itself " in an elevating excitement 
of the soul." In the service of beauty, Poe employed his 
art. We can easily name the titles of his most effective 
poems; they are the So7ig to Ligeia (in Al Aaraaf)^ 
the first To Helen^ IsrafeU The City in the Sea^ The 
Coliseum, The Haunted Palace, The Conqueror Worm, 
Ulalume, For Annie, The Raven, The Belh, and An- 
nabel Lee, 

Poe*s melodies are haunting ones. Sonorous words 
play an important part in the mechanics of his compo- 
sition. Repetition, sometimes in the form of assonance, 
as in the line, — 

"From a wild weird clime that lieth^ sublime ; " ^ 

sometimes in the refrain, so effectively employed in The 
Haven; sometimes in the recurrence of the identical 
word, as in Dream-Land and in Ulalume, is used with 
marked musical effect. Poe makes artful use of melo- 
dious names, like Auber, Eldorado, Israfel, Ulalume, 
Lenore. There is wonderful charm in the rhythmic 
movement of Poe's verse, and there is also, for most 
readers, a charm in that omnipresent melancholy which 
pervades his poems. So characteristic is this last qual- 
ity that Poe has been described — " not as a single- 
poem poet, but the poet of a single mood." ^ 
Weird, mystical, unearthly, 

" Out of Space — out of Time," 

these compositions succeed in fulfilling the purpose 
of their author ; they impress the mind with ideas of 
supernal beauty. They speak no message of hope or in- 
spiration, they teach no lesson. In Poe's conception of 
his art, the poet as prophet had no place. 

^ Dream-Land. ^ Stedman. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 215 

If Poe had a literary master, it was the author of 
Chnstabel and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 
Coleridge, more than any other poet, taught the author 
of Israfel and The Raven the secret of melodious verse 
and the fascination of the weird. 

Of Poe's tales, selections should be made so as to include 
the several types. The following will serve for the suggestions 
purpose : A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Gold *or Reading. 
Bug^ The Murders of the Rue Morgue, William Wilson ^ 
The Fall of the House of Usher, Ligeia, Landor's Cottage^ 
The Devil in the Belfry. These eight tales are fairly repre- 
sentative of Poe's best work in romance ; having read these, 
the average reader will not need urging to increase the list. 
The student should make a study of the very impressive tale 
The Fall of the House of Usher. Let him examine, word 
by word, the careful composition of the introductory para- 
graph, heedfuUy noting the cumulative effect of the descrip- 
tive phrases, like : " dull, dark and soundless day " ; " in the 
autumn of the year " ; " when the clouds hung oppressively 
low " ; " singularly dreary tract," etc., and also the iteration 
of the feeling evoked in the narrator, as expressed in terms 
like " insufferable gloom " ; " utter depression of soul '* ; 
" unredeemed dreariness of thought." Then let him apply 
the same method to the study of the piece as a structure ; and 
he will perceive something of the mechanics of Poe's master- 
piece, as he clearly recognizes its marvelous effect. 

Of the poems, The Raven, of course, calls for our first 
attention. Poe's article on The Philosophy of Composition 
will be found helpfully suggestive in studying the poem, 
although no one accepts seriously all that the author says 
regarding its composition. At least all of the twelve poems 
named in this text should be read, and the uniformity of 
tone and theme be noted. 

The standard edition of Poe's Complete Works is the 
Virginia Edition, 17 vols., edited by James A. Harrison 
(Crowell, 1902). The Works, in 10 vols., edited by E. C. 
Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, is also authoritative. The 



216 PHILOSOPHY AND ROMANCE 

latest full biography is J. A. Harrison's Life and Letters of 
Edgar Allan Foe (1903). G. E. Woodberry's JEdgar Allan 
Foe (American Men of Letters Series) is the best critical 
biography. A briefer life of Poe by W. P. Trent, in the 
English Men of Letters Series, is announced. The sections 
upon Poe in Trent's American Literature, Richardson's 
American Literature, Wendell's Literary History of Amer- 
ica, and Stedman's Foets of America are valuable for 
reference. 



CHAPTER V 

THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

I. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: 1807-1882. 
II. John Greenleaf Whittier: 1807-1892. 
HI. James Russell Lowell: 1819-1891. — 
IV. Oliver Wendell Holmes: 1809-1894. 

I. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW : 1807-1882. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the most widely 
read of all the American poets and the one that has the 
closest hold upon the hearts of the American people, was 
born in Portland , Maine, February 27, 1807. His father, 
a graduate of Harvard College, was a leading lawyer in 
the city. Both parents were of the best Eng- 
lish stock and descendants -of the early settlers "^^ ^^' 
in New England. On his mother's side, the poet traced 
his ancestry to John Alden, whose peculiar courtship of 
the Plymouth maid, Priscilla, he was to celebrate in one 
of his happiest poems. It was from his mother, a lover 
of nature and of poetry, that Longfellow inherited his 
romantic taste and his literary ambition. 

School life commenced early for this boy. He began 
to study at three, and was placed in an acad- . 
emy at six; at seven he was well on his way 
through the Latin grammar ; and was reported by his 
master " one of the best boys we have in school. . . . His 
conduct last quarter was very correct and amiable." 
There were eight children in the home, four brothers and 
four sisters ; Henry was the second child. Books were at 
hand ; and out of doors there was not a little to stir the 



218 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

imagination of a boy in the brisk seaport town which has 
always been noted for both enterprise and beauty. Its 
picturesque features were never forgotten. In the de- 
scriptive poem, My Lost Youth^ written in 1855, they 
are vividly recalled, — the pleasant streets of the sea- 
side town, the gleam of the sunlight on the bay, the 
harbor islands, the garrison in the little fort, the sea-fight 
between the Enterprise and the Boxer, which was 
watched by the citizens, from the shore. Like Irving, 
Longfellow was fascinated by the sight of the wharves 
and the shipping ; and thus he writes : — 

" I remember the black wharves and the slips, 

And the sea-tides tossing' free ; 
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, 
And the beauty and mystery of the ships, 

And the magic of the sea. 



" I remember the gleams and glooms that dart 
Across the school-boy's brain ; 
The song and the silence in the heart, 
That in part are prophecies, and in part 
Are longings wild and vain. 

And the voice of that fitful song 
Sings on, and is never still : 
' A boy's will is the wind's will, 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.' " ^ 

Longfellow was twelve years old when Irving's Sketch- 
Booh appeared ; the young reader was immediately 
captivated by its charm. At thirteen, he began to write 
verse, some of which was printed in the newspapers. 
He was fourteen when he passed his entrance examina- 
tions for college. 

In 1822, Longfellow became a student at Bowdoin 
College, and was admitted to the Sophomore 
Class. In college, he was a general favorite, 
social in disposition, but above everything else, the in- 

* My Lost Youth. Read the entire poem. 



Collef'' 
Bowdoin. 



220 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

dustrious student and voluminous reader. We have 
already seen that his acquaintance with Hawthorne, his 
classmate, was comparatively slight.^ Although Long- 
fellow wrote considerable prose and verse, some of which 
was published in the United States Literary Gazette^ of 
Boston, there is little in the work of this period which 
calls for comment. We note the recurrence of nature 
themes, and the influence of Bryant's poems — an influ- 
ence so strong that these early compositions appear 
Literary hardly more than imitations. Before the end 
Ambitions. ^^ ^jg college course, Longfellow had recog- 
nized his true vocation, and had formulated his desires 
in a letter to his father, written in his senior year. 

" I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature ; 
my whole soul burns ardently for it, and every earthly 
thought centres in it." 

Again he writes : " Whatever I do study ought to be en- 
gaged in with all my soul, — for I will be eminent in some- 
thing." 

At the commencement exercises of his class in 1825, 
Longfellow spoke on the theme Our Native Writers. 

The opportunity for further equipment came speedily. 
Travel and A professorship of modern languages had just 
study. i^ggjj established at Bowdoin, and to the young 
graduate, already marked as a youth of talent, this posi- 
tion was offered with permission to spend three years in 
Europe for study. The call was accepted with eager- 
ness and delight. This first European sojourn extended 
from the spring of 1826 to the summer of 1829 ; and 
Longfellow returned with a practical knowledge of 
French, Spanish, and Italian. The study of these lan- 
guages was then altogether new in American colleges, 
and much of the professor's time was employed in pre- 

* See page 184. 



PROFESSOR AND POET 221 

paring texts for the use of his students. There was 
little opportunity for literary composition ; nevertheless, 
during 1833 and 1834, Longfellow began the publica- 
tion of some travel sketches, which in 1835 appeared in 
book form under the title of Outre-Mer: ^ A Pilgrim- 
age heyond the Sea, This volume is a lesser Sketch- 
Booh^ in the manner of Irving, without his skill. 

In 1834, Longfellow received a call from Harvard 
College, to follow the distinguished scholar TheCaiito 
George Ticknor in the professorship of Belles- Harvard, 
Lettres, which he was about to resign. A second 
second trip abroad followed the acceptance ^°^' 
of this call. Longfellow was now accompanied by his 
wife, — he had married, in 1831, Miss Mary Potter, of 
Portland, — and in the autumn, while they were in Hol- 
land, Mrs. Longfellow died. The loneliness and desola- 
tion of that experience are suggested in the opening 
pages of Hyperion : — 

^'The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun. 
The brightness of our life is gone. Shadows of evening fall 
around us, and the world seems but a dim reflection, — itself 
a broader shadow. We look forward into the coming lonely 
night. The soul withdraws into itself. Then stars arise, and 
the night is holy." 

The poet hastened on to Heidelberg, and, like Paul 
Flemming, the hero of his romance, buried himself in 
books. 

For eighteen years, from 1836 to 1854, Longfellow 
retained his active connection with Harvard professor 
College. However exacting his duties, and and Poet, 
there were times when they became irksome, he never 
slighted them. His students found him patient and 
gentle ; his presence, equally with his instruction, was 

* Outre-Mer — " Beyond Sea.'* 



222 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

an inspiration. The poet's life is inseparably associated 
with the histoi^ of Harvard and of Cambridge. In the 
midst of a distinguished society, he became, as time 
went on, its most distinguished member. Soon after his 
arrival in Cambridge, Longfellow had taken rooms in 
the stately and historic mansion known as Craigie 
House, celebrated ^s having been the headquarters of 
General Washington, but now more famous as the poet's 
home.^ It remained his residence until his death. 

In 1839, Longfellow published two volumes which 
The Real commanded immediate recognition. The one, 
Beginning, a prose romance, Hyperion^ is more or less a 
record of the moods and thoughts associated with its 
author's sojourn in Germany and Switzerland, warmly 
colored by the sentiment of youth and by the imagina- 
tion of a poet who is stirred by romantic regions and 
legend-haunted scenes. The other, a thin volume of 
verse, entitled Voices of the Nighty contained a num- 
ber of his earlier compositions, together with eight new 
poems of genuine worth. These were the impressive 
Hymn to Nighty beginning with its finely imaginative 
stanza : — 

" I heard the trailing garments of the Night 
Sweep through her marble halls ! 
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light 
From the celestial walls ! " — 

the Psalm of Life^ now so time-worn and so hack- 
neyed that we treat it slightingly instead of submitting 
our imagination to the stirring appeal of its verse, The 
Re aper arid the E lowersl The Light of Stars, Foot- 
stejjs of Angels, Flowers, The Beleaguered City, and 
Midnight Mass for the Dyi'ifg Year. Simple and me- 
lodious, these poems quickly found their way into the 

1 The house became Mr. Longfellow's property after his second mar- 
riage (1843). 



SUCCESSION OF WORKS 223 

homes and hearts of the people. Two years later a vol- 
ume of Ballads and Other Poems appeared ; and to 
the songs in the earlier group were added the now fa- 
miliar Skeleton in Armor, The Wreck of the IIes2')erus, 
The Village Blacksmith, The Hainy Day^ Maiden- 
hood, and Excelsior — this last, like the Psalm of 
Life, a favorite mark for the arrow of the critic. It is 
worth while, in passing, to note how many of these com- 
positions have held their place in popularity and justi- 
fied the first impression of their merit. 

Longfellow took little part in the political discussions 
of his day. He was neither abolitionist nor transcen- 
dentalist, nor did he, like Whittier or Lowell, employ 
his verse in the furtherance of any specific cause. He 
did, however, on his return voyage, after a six months' 
stay in Europe, in 1842, compose seven poems poemson 
dealing with the subject of slavery ; and these Slavery, 
were published at the close of the year. They lack in- 
tensity of feeling and possess little artistic merit, but 
are interesting as the only utterance on this theme to 
which the poet gave public expression. 

In 1843, occurred the poet's marriage to Miss Fran- 
ces Appleton, whom he had first met in Swit- second 
zerland, seven years before. In the character Marriage, 
of Mary Ashburton, she had figured in the romance 
Hyperion. In this year of his marriage was published 
the first of Longfellow's dramas. The Spanish Student. 

The next ten years were richly productive. Two col- 
lections were edited by Lonjyfellow in 1845, ,, , 

-r> ^7". n -ry SuCCeSSlon 

one of which. The Poets and Poetry of Eii- of the 
rope, contained numerous translations made 
by the poet. Then followed, in 1846, the volume enti- 
tled The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems ; and 
in 1847, the first long narrative poem, Evangeline. 
Kavanagh, a Tale, was completed in 1849, and a fresh 



224 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

volume of verse, The Seaside and the Fireside^ ap- 
peared in 1850. Another dramatic work, The Golden 
Legend^ was finished in 1851. In 1854, Longfellow be- 
gan working upon Hiawatha, The work was completed 
and published in 1855. 

Of the two narrative poems it is necessary to speak 
m some detail. The pathetic incident on which 
the story of Evangeline is based was related 
first to Hawthorne, as a subject well suited to romance; 
the novelist, however, made no use of the material thus 
obtained, but willingly resigned the theme to Long- 
fellow, who had shown a lively interest in the tale. ^ 

There was no question of the poet's success. This 
beautiful idyll of the Acadian exiles, with its plaintive 
romance of Evangeline's weary, heart-breaking search 
for the lover so ruthlessly separated from his bride, was 
immediately accepted as the crown of the poet's work. 
And it is worthy of note that the poem was finished 
upon his fortieth birthday. 

Longfellow had chosen a peculiar metre for Evange- 

„ ^ line. The use of hexameter verse had not 
Hozameters. 

been deemed consistent with the principles of 

English versification, and had not been employed with 
marked success. It had, however, been used by the Ger- 
man poet Goethe with very pleasing effect in his pas- 
toral poem Hermann und Dorothea ; and Longfellow, 
who had experimented slightly with the measure, deter- 
mined to use it here. The poet was invariably happy in 
his choice of metrical forms ; the reader of his poems 

•^ When Evangeline appeared, Hawthorne wrote to Longfellow that 
he had read it " with more pleasure than it would be decorous to ex- 
press." The poet, replying-, after thanking Hawthorne for a friendly no- 
tice of the poem in a Salem paper, said : " Still more do I thank you for 
resigning to me that legend of Acady. This success I owe entirely 
to you, for being willing to forego the pleasure of writing a prose tale 
which many people would have taken for poetry, that I might write a 
poem which many people take for prose." 



HIAWATHA 225 

is inevitably struck with the appropriateixess of the 
measure to the theme. As Dr. Holmes says in respect 
to the metre of Evangeline : — 

*' The hexameter has been often criticised, but I do not be- 
lieve any other measure could have told that lovely story 
with such effect, as we feel when carried along the tranquil 
current of these brimming, slow-moving, soul-satisfying lines. 
. . . The poet knows better than his critics the length of 
step which best befits his muse." ^ 

The second of these great compositions makes use of 
a distinctively native theme. Longfellow had 
for some time been attracted to the American 
Indian as a subject, and finally hit upon a plan for 
weaving together a number of the Indian traditions in 
narrative form. The Finnish epic Kalevala suggested 
an appropriate measure and in other ways served as a 
model for the poem, which he wrote with intense enjoy- 
ment. As in the case of Evangeline^ the form selected 
proved remarkably apt to the treatment of this primi- 
tive theme. The trochaic tetrameter, — using classic 
terminology, — and the employment of parallelism and 
repetition, gave an elemental effect to the narrative 
that was both appropriate and rhythmically pleasing. 
Hiawatha is the epic of the red man, and the romantic, 
the heroic phase of Indian nature has never been better 
presented. Considerable criticism greeted its appear- 
ance, and there were many charges of plagiarism; 
nevertheless, the poem was immensely popular, and is 
now generally regarded as the poet's most original and 
most satisfactory achievement. 

The demands of the class-room had increased with 
the years and college duties became more and more 

1 Introduction to the poem, in the Cambridg-e Edition of Long-fellow's 
poems. See also the Life of Longfellow, by Samuel Longfellow, vol. ii, 
p. 72. 



226 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

irksome to the poet. " This college work is like a great 
In Middle hand laid on all the strings of my lyre, 
^^^' stopping their vibrations," he writes in his 

journal in 1850. In 1854, Longfellow resigned the pro- 
fessorship and gave himself wholly to his vocation as a 
poet. Following Hiawatha^ his next important work 
was the delightful Puritan pastoral. The Courtship of 
Miles Standish — a bit of refreshing human comedy 
drawn from the sober annals of Plymouth. The poem 
was published in 1858. Three years later, in 1861, the 
happiness and serenity of Longfellow's life were sud- 
denly broken by the shocking accident which caused 
the death of his wife. Sitting in the library of their 
home, sealing some packages of their little daughter's 
curls, Mrs. Longfellow's dress caught fire. She died the 
following day. The deep grief of his loss the poet bore 
in silence. After his death, there was found in his port- 
folio the sonnet entitled The Cross of Snow^ written 
in 1879, the single utterance of his grief in verse. 

" There is a mountain in the distant West 

That, sun-defying-, in its deep ravines 

Displays a cross of snow upon its side. 

Such is the cross I wear upon my breast 

These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes 
And seasons, changeless since the day she died." 

To occupy his mind and alleviate his sorrow, the 
poet began a translation of Dante. Upon this he worked 
at intervals for several years. The Divine Comedy was 
completed in 1867 ; it holds a place among the best ver- 
sions of Dante's work in English. Meanwhile the first 
part of Tales of a Wayside Inn had appeared in 1863 ; 
in 1872 and 1873, the remaining parts were published. 

In the spring of 1868, Mr. Longfellow went again to 
Europe, accompanied by his children. The poet was 
everywhere accorded a royal welcome. The Universities 



THE LATER VOLUMES 227 

of Oxford and Cambridge honored him *vith their de- 
grees, and Queen Victoria received him as her Honors in 
guest at Windsor. The winter was spent in England. 
Florence and Rome and (after again visiting England) 
the party returned home in the fall. 

Longfellow's most ambitious, but not most successful, 
dramatic work, Christus: a Mystery (which The Later 
includes The Divine Tragedy^ The Golden volumes. 
Legend^ and The New England Tragedies)^ was pub- 
lished, complete, in 1872 ; The Masque of Pandora and 
Other Poems^ in 1875 ; Keramos and Other Poems., in 
1878 ; Ultima Thide, in 1880, and In the Ilarhor, in 1882. 
Michael Angelo, a Fragment^ did not appear until 1884. 
The most notable among these later compositions was 
the Morituri Salutamus ^ written for the fiftieth anni- 
versary of the famous class at Bowdoin. 

Longfellow's last years can hardly be termed declin- 
ing years. His health continued vigorous, his closing 
spirit was cheerful, his house remained a cen- ^^y*- 
tre of sociability. His children married and established 
their homes around him. Outside the circle of distin- 
guished men in Cambridge and Boston who cherished 
his friendship, he might well have called all his country- 
men his friends, for no American man of letters was 
ever so widely beloved. His popularity, indeed, had its 
drawbacks. It was sometimes amusing and often an- 
noying to the poet, — this insistent pressure of friendly 
feeling. His time and strength were absorbed by well- 
meaning but inconsiderate visitors whose only errand 
was to express their admiration. Requests for auto- 
graphs were numberless ; in one day Longfellow wrote, 
sealed, and directed seventy replies. One ingenious lady 
in Ohio sent him a hundred cards, with the request that 
he would write his name on each, that she might distribute 
^ " We who are about to die salute you." 



228 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

them among her guests at a party which she was to give 

upon the poet's birthday ! 

No account of Longfellow's personality would be 

„^ „ . complete without reference to his love for chil- 
ThePoet , tx. i • ^ • i i • • 

and the dren. His relation to them was singularly inti- 

Chiidron. ^^^0 an^j tender. Among his sweetest poems 
are those which treat of childhood. It was no perfunctory 
greeting that he uttered : — 

" Come to me, ye children ! 
And whisper in my ear 
What the birds and the winds are singing 
In your sunny atmosphere. 

" For what are all our contrivings, 
And the wisdom of our books, 
When compared with your caresses, 
And the gladness of your looks ? 

*' Ye are better than all the ballads 
That ever were sung or said ; 
For ye are living poems. 
And all the rest are dead." ^ 

And the children came to him. On his seventy-second 
birthday they brought him the famous chair made from 
the wood of the " spreading chestnut tree " which had 
shaded the doorway of the village smith. They con- 
tinued to come collectively and individually ; for the 
warm-hearted poet gave orders that no child who wished 
to see the chair should be excluded ; and the muddy 
print of many a little shoe was left on the floor of the 
hall in Craigie house. Longfellow's seventy-fifth birth- 
day was celebrated in the public schools throughout the 
land. His last visitors were four Boston schoolboys who 
had asked permission to call, whom the poet received 
-^ « . with accustomed kindliness. That nio^ht he had 
a sudden attack of illness, and six days later, 
March 24, 1882, he died. His last poem, 27ie Bells of 

1 The Children. 



LONGFELLOW'S SIMPLICITY 229 

San Bias, was written a few days before his death. One 
finds a touch of prophecy in the closing lines — the last 
verses that he wrote : — 

" Out of the shadows of night 
The world rolls into light ; 
It is daybreak everywhere." 

Among the many tributes to the memory of the poet 
there was none quite so touching, none more apt, than 
the comment made by Emerson at Longfellow's funeral. 
He was then within a month of his own departure, his 
memory was shattered, and he showed all the weakness 
of his pathetic decline. Gazing intently upon the face 
of the dead poet, he turned to a friend and said : " That 
gentleman was a sweet, beautiful soul, but I have en- 
tirely forgotten his name." ^ 

Longfellow's name is safe ; and the many thousands 
who still read and love his poems continue to recognize 
therein the " sweet, beautiful soul " of the poet. His 
body lies in Mount Auburn, the resting-place of many 
famous contemporaries. 

The qualities which especially mark the poetry of 
Longfellow are simplicity of style, beautiful ^q^xio 
imagery, moral earnestness, and narrative ^"**' 
power. 

So simple is this poet that many critics pronounce 
him commonplace. Unquestionably he pos- 
sessed what may be termed the common mind. 
He was not a profound thinker, not one of " the bards 
sublime " ; he spoke out of the common experience of 
life, and it was this in large degree which gave him the 
comprehension and affection of the common people.^ 

1 Emerson at Home and Abroad, by M. D. Conway. 

2 " The poet has nothing to tell, except from what is actually or 
potentially common to the race." " Courage in frankly trusting the 
personal as the universal, is what made Longfellow . . . sovereign of 



230 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

We must remember, also, that when we dwell upon 
the commonplaceness or the triteness of Longfellow's 
sentiment, we are often emphasizing the fact that the 
verse of our criticism has become worn by our own use. 

Longfellow shared generously in the gift bestowed 
Beauty oi ^^ ^^^ poets, the sense of beauty and the power 
Imagery. of figurative expression. Not at all like the 
magical art of Poe, Longfellow's art, impassionate, 
quiet, restrained, often pensive, sometimes melancholy, 
— never morbid, — is equally distinctive and equally 
true. He, too, had a rare felicity of phrase which gave 
artistic setting to his figures. The following passages 
are characteristic illustrations of his simple but effec- 
tive imagery : — 

" From the cool cisterns of the midnight air my spirit drank repose." * 

*• She struck where the white and fleecy waves 
Looked soft as carded wool, 
But the cruel rocks, they goared her side 
Like the horns of an angry bull." ^ 

" Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven. 
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels." ^ 

" Life had long been astir in the village, and clamorous labor 
Knocked with its hundred hands at the golden gates of the morn- 
ing." * 

" For age is opportunity no less 
Than youth itself, though in another dress, 
And as the evening twilight fades away 
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day." * 

Like Bryant, Longfellow is usually impressed by the 
The Moral " lesson " in the thing he sees, and often tags 
Element. his poem with a moral that is obvious enough 
to be left unformulated. Yet the happy expression of 

more hearts than any other poet of his generation and more than any 
other poet who has lived." — W. D. Howells, North American Review^ 
1907. 

1 Hymn to Night. ^ The Wreck of the Hesperus. 

* Evangeline. * Evangeline. ^ Morituri Salutamus. 



LYRIC AND DRAMATIC POEMS 231 

these wise observations is far from unattractive to the 
average American reader ; and through them he won 
his way to the hearts of many. Of this didactic ten- 
dency we may take as familiar examples A Psalm of 
Life and The Rainy Day^ in which the moral lesson 
is the main purpose of each. In The Village Black- 
smith we are reminded of Wordsworth's manner : — 

" Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, 
For the lesson thou hast taught ! " 

It is as a writer of narrative poems that Longfellow 
attains his chief distinction. No other Amer- gj^^ ^ 
ican poet compares with him in this field. Narrative. 
Not only the three long poems which deal with themes 
of national interest, but also the twenty-two tales of 
the Wayside Inn series and the numerous ballads like 
The Skeleton in Armor^ The Wreck of the Hesperus^ 
King Witlafs Drinking-Hoim, and The Discoverer of 
the North Cape must be taken in account. Not all are 
of equal merit ; The Tales of a Wayside Inn ^ attain a 
varying degree of success, but this body of narrative 
poems as a whole proves the poet to have been a mas- 
ter of the story-telling art. 

As a lyric poet, Longfellow ranks with the best. 
Many of his poems are songs. We think at ^^^ ^^ 
once of The Rainy Day, The Bridge, The Dramatic 
Day is Done, Curfew, Stars of the Summer 
Night, Resignation, Sandalphon, The Children, The 

1 The best of these Tales are included in Part I of the series. Taul 
Revere's Ride, King Robert of Sicily, and The Saga of King Olaf have 
always been the most popular. The Wayside Inn was the old Red 
Horse Inn at Sudbury, Massachusetts. Of the personages who are 
made to tell the tales, the poet was T. W. Parsons, a minor poet, and 
translator of Dante ; the Sicilian, Luigi Monti, a friend of Mr. Long- 
fellow, an instructor at Harvard; the theologian, Professor Daniel 
Treadwell of Harvard ; the student, Henry Ware Wales ; the Spanish 
Jew, Israel Edrehi ; and the musician, the famous violinist, Ole Bull. 



232 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

Children's Hour^ and many more. With the sonnet, 
too, Longfellow was eminently successful; those ad- 
dressed to Chaucer^ Shakespeare^ Milton^ and Keats 
are among his best. The poetical dramas are inferior 
as a group to the lyric and narrative poems. In The 
Spanish Student and The Golden Legend his imagi- 
nation is freer and stronger than in the other dramas, 
and the dramatic poem, Michael Angela^ shows the 
poet's creative power in its highest development. 

Longfellow's intimate acquaintance with the litera- 
Transia- tures of Europe and the influence of profes- 
tions. sional study are shown in the large number of 

facile translations from Scandinavian, German, French, 
Italian, and Spanish poets. They are marked by in- 
sight, sympathy, and felicity of interpretation ; and 
form no unimportant portion of his work. It is unfair 
and ill-considered to cite these productions as proof 
of the poet's lack of originality — as is sometimes 
done ; the translator of The Castle hy the Sea and 
The Song of the Silent Land is a poetical benefactor 
indeed. 

It is not altogether to his varied and rich accomplish- 
ment in verse that Longfellow's place in the 
affection of all Americans is due ; it was the 
charm of his personality that confirmed it. He ap- 
peared to be one among his countrymen, not above 
them. Calm in spirit, gentle in utterance, benignant, 
modest, the people saw in him the embodiment of the 
beautiful ideal he taught. They admired him as a 
poet, they trusted and revered him as a man ; they ac- 
cepted him as a teacher ; they crowned him poet laure- 
ate of the home. 

To English readers, also, he became endeared. In 
1884, a bust of Longfellow was placed with appropriate 
honors in the Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. It 



SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 233 

was the first time that an American man of letters had 
been commemorated in this place of high memorial. 
We have seen that the poetry of Poe found great favor 
among the Latin peoples of Europe ; Longfellow's 
poems have enjoyed as wide if not wider popularity 
abroad. There is an anecdote which gives a remark- 
able illustration of this fact. It is said that on a French 
steamer sailing from Constantinople to Marseilles, a 
Russian, an Englishman, a Scotchman, a Frenchman, 
a Greek, and an American vied with one another in 
quotations from our poet.^ In America, certainly, 
Longfellow is still the poet of the people. It is an in- 
teresting fact that in the great printing establishment 
of Longfellow's publishers at Cambridge, there is 
always some edition of the poet in the press. His poems 
are printing continuously every working day in the 
year. 

Of the prose works of Longfellow, Hyperion will be found 
most interesting. Selections from the poems should suggestions 
include representative compositions in the various *or Reading, 
groups described in the text. The poetry of Longfellow is so 
familiar that particular directions are unnecessary. Houghton 
Mifflin Company publish the only complete editions of Long- 
fellow's Works. The Cambridge Edition of the poems, in 
one volume, is complete, and its bibliographical notes are 
admirable. In the Riverside Literature Series, The Court- 
ship of Miles Standish, Evangeline, Hiawatha, Tales of 
a Wayside Inn, are printed in separate numbers. 

The Life of Longfellow (3 vols.), by his brother, Samuel 
Longfellow, is the standard biography. The Longfellow in 
the American Men of Letters Series is by T. W. Higgin- 
son ; that in the G7xat Writers Series is by E. S. Robertson. 
The best brief biography is that by G. R. Carpenter, in the 
Beacon Biographies. Mrs. Annie Fields, in Authors and 
Friends, Edward Everett Hale, in Fireside Travels : Cam- 

^ See Hig-ginson's Longfellow {American Men of Letters Series). 



234 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

bridge Thirty Years Ago, and W. D. Howells, in My Liter- 
ary Friends and Acquaintance, have written interesting 
reminiscences of the poet. Valuable studies of Longfellow- 
are to be found in Richardson's American Literature (vol. 
ii),Stedman's Poets of America, Trent's History of Ameri- 
can Literature, Wendell's Literary History of America, and 
Vincent's American Literary Masters. An interesting book 
of reference is The Wayside Inn, its History and Litera- 
ture, by S. A. Bent. A delightful essay upon Longfellow is 
found in the Literary and Social Essays, by G. W. Curtis. 
Most noteworthy among the publications inspired by the 
one hundredth anniversary of Longfellow's birth are the 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, by Charles Eliot Norton 
(Houghton Mifflin Company), The Centenary of Longfellow 
{Atlantic Monthly, March, 1907), by Bliss Perry, and the 
critical article in the North American Review, March, 1907, 
by W. D. Howells. 

II. JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER : 1807-18S2. 

December 17, 1807, — the year in which Longfellow 
was born, — occurred the birth of John Greenleaf Whit- 
tier, second in this group of New England poets and 
one whose memory stands next to that of Longfellow 
in the affection and reverence of the American people. 
Unlike Longfellow, Hawthorne, and Emerson, Whittier 
was neither city-born nor college-bred. In his prepara- 
tion for life the academic element was entirely lacking. 
He was a country boy of the genuine New England 
stock ; for one hundred and sixty years his stalwart an- 
cestors had cultivated the Whittier farm, and the very 
house in which he was born had been built by the great- 
great-grandfather of the poet in 1688. 

The birthplace of Whittier lies a few miles from the 
^jjg busy little city of Haverhill, in the northeast 

Birthplace, corner of Massachusetts. It was and is a 
pleasant region, rather lonely, not so ruggedly romantic 



236 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

as that in whicli young Bryant learned to commune 
with nature, yet full of pastoral beauty. "Our old 
homestead nestled under a long range of hills," says 
Whittier ; " it was surrounded by woods in all direc- 
tions save to the southeast, where a break in the leafy 
wall revealed a vista of low green meadows, picturesque 
with wooded islands and jutting capes of upland. 
Through these a small brook, noisy enough as it foamed, 
rippled and laughed down its rocky falls by our garden 
side, wound, silently and scarcely visible, to a still 
larger stream, known as the Country Brook. This brook 
in its turn, after doing duty at two or three saw and 
grist mills, the clack of which we could hear in still 
days across the intervening woodlands, found its way 
to the great river, and the river took up and bore it 
down to the great sea." * 

The " great river " was the Merrimac, down which 
Thoreau made his interesting expedition. It was not 
far to the beaches of Salisbury, Rye, and Hampton, 
where the poet pitched his imaginary tent, with the 
great stretch of salt marsh to the westward, the limit- 
less reach of the ocean in the foreground, the high bluff 
of Great Boar's Head to the north, and to the south the 
broad mouth of the Merrimac, with the ancient town of 
Newburyport just beyond. With these localities, Whit- 
tier has made his readers familiar. 

If one would catch a glimpse of Whittier's boyhood, 
The Country ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ '^^ sketched in The Barefoot Boy; 
Boy. if he would know the spirit of the household, 

he may find it in Snow-Bound. The farm itself was 
not a very profitable one ; it was encumbered with 
debt, and strict economy was the law ; yet it was a 
comfortable home, and the picture it left in the poet's 

1 The Fish I Did nH Catch, Prose Works, vol. i. See also My Summer 
with Dr. Singletary and Yankee Gypsies in the same volume. 



THE COUNTRY BOY 237 

memory is an inviting one. The " old rude-furnished 
room " with its " whitewashed wall and sagging beam," 
its " motley braided mat " upon the floor, and its ample 
fireplace ruddy with the flame of crackling logs, was a 
scene of contentment and homely cheer. 

" Shut in from all the world without, 
We sat the clean-winged hearth about, 
Content to let the north-wind roar 
In baffled rage at pane and door, 
While the red logs before us beat 
The frost-line back with tropic heat. 



" And, for the winter fireside meet, 
Between the andirons' straddling feet. 
The mug of cider simmered slow, 
The apples sputtered in a row, 
And, close at hand, the basket stood 
With nuts from brown October's wood. 

" What matter how the night behaved ? 
What matter how the north- wind raved ? 
Blow high, blow low, not all its snow 
Could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow." 

Here the winter evenings were passed with story-tell- 
ing, or talk of guest, or poring over one of the scanty 
volumes — perhaps the almanac, or the poems of the 
Quaker Ellwood, or the Journal of John Woolman,^ or 

" The one harmless novel, mostly hid 
From younger eyes " ^ — 

a volume of Scott, read privily. 

But one bright day the district schoolmaster brought 
a copy of Robert Burns into this country home and read 
aloud the songs of Scotland's peasant poet. The New 
England farmer's son, then fourteen, listened with de- 
light, and felt his own soul kindled with poetic fire. He 
began to write rhymes of his own, and the verses were 
passed about and admired. He borrowed all the books 

^ See page 71. ^ Snow-Bound. 



238 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

that were available, especially poems ; one of his first 
purchases was a copy of Shakespeare's plays. His par- 
ents were devout Quakers, and it was natural enough 
that oftener than any other volume, the Bible was in his 
hands. Meanwhile the youth was working hard at plow 
and scythe, steadily employed in the severe manual 
labor of the farm. District school he attended during the 
twelve weeks' session every winter. 

Whittier's father was a subscriber to the Free Press^ 
a weekly paper which young William Lloyd 
Garrison was then editing at Newburyport; 
and to this publication Mary Whittier, a sister two years 
older than the youthful poet, sent anonymously one of 
his early compositions. It was printed by the editor; and 
one day when the eighteen-year-old lad was mending 
fences the postman tossed him the weekly paper with his 
verses in the "Poet's Corner." Whittier could hardly 
believe his eyes. He stood dazed, reading the lines, 
scarcely comprehending the fact that one of his poems was 
actually in print. It was not long thereafter that Garrison 
himself drove over to have a look at his new contributor ; 
and the lifelong friendship of these two men was begun. 
The visitor urged Mr. Whittier not to discourage the 
literary ambitions of his son, and advised that the youth 
be given an education. While not indifferent to his son's 
desires, Mr. Whittier was a hard-headed, hard-working 
practical man, upon whom the necessity of a livelihood 
pressed heavily. True to the poet's characterization of 
him in Snow-Bound^ — 

" A prompt, decisive man, no breath 
Our father wasted : " — 

his terse response to this appeal was, " Sir, poetry will 
not give him bread ! " 

But Whittier yearned for an education. His health 
was delicate ; indeed, it had already suffered from the 



THE JOURNALIST 239 

hard labor of the farm, and it was evident that his 
physique could not endure the heavy demands The 
of the agricultural life. It was not long after Academy. 
Garrison's visit, therefore, that young Whittier ob- 
tained his father's consent to his attendance at the 
academy in Haverhill, provided that he could earn the 
means. So the farm-boy learned how to make slippers 
and labored at the shoemaker's bench. Thus he paid 
his tuition for a six months' term in the Haverhill 
school. The next winter he taught in the country dis- 
trict and earned sufficient funds to secure another term 
at the academy. This was the extent of Whittier's 
scholastic training. A college course he was compelled 
to renounce for lack of funds, and a disinclination to 
accept assistance unearned. He had read a surprising 
number of books, — sometimes walking miles to secure 
a coveted volume, — had written a great deal of verse, 
and was locally known as a poet. He even planned 
to publish an edition of his poems, but the project 
failed. 

Under the circumstances, Whittier was fortunate in 
the opportunities which now offered for a ^.j^^ 
career. In 1829, he became editor of a jour- JournaUst. 
nal published in Boston called the American Manufac- 
turer^ which supported the idea of a protective tariff, 
and also contained literary matter. The position carried 
no particular distinction with it, and the salary was 
only nine dollars a week; but it served as a good 
school for a young writer. Whittier wrote regularly for 
his paper, both prose and verse, yet had considerable 
leisure for reading, and making acquaintance with the 
world. In August, his father's illness called him home, 
and he was kept busy in the management of the farm 
until his father's death. Early in 1830, he became 
editor of the Haverhill Gazette. This engagement con- 



240 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

tinued for six months, when he assumed editorial 
charge of the New England Review^ published in 
Hartford. That the young Quaker of Haverhill had al- 
ready made some impression by his personality as well 
as by his pen is evident from the introduction now 
given him by George D. Prentice, the retiring editor 
of the Meview. 

"I cannot do less than congratulate my readers," said 
Prentice, " on the prospect of their more familiar acquaint- 
ance with a gentleman of such powerful energies and such 
exalted purity and sweetness of character. I have made some 
enemies among those whose good opinion I value, but no 
rational man can ever be the enemy of Mr. Whittier." ^ 

For a year and a half, Whittier retained this posi- 
tion, developing rapidly in power and in pro- 
In Hartford, r • i A- u u- ^4. 

fessional reputation. He gave his support to 

Henry Clay and upheld the principle of the tariff. 
"Whittier also enjoyed the society of the literary people 
more or less noted, who made their home in Hartford. 
Among the members of this interesting group were the 
poets James G. Percival and Mrs. Lydia Sigourney, 
whose writings were at this time widely read and ad- 
mired. It was in Hartford that Whittier, in 1831, 
published his first book, Legends of New England^ a 
volume of rather crude sketches, including some verse ; 
they had already appeared in the New England Mag- 
azine. These Legends were not thought by Whittier 
worthy of permanent place in his Prose Works; and 
the same judgment was placed by him on most of his 
early experiments in fictitious narrative. Of his poems 
written previous to 1833, there are few which have sur- 
vived. The spirited Song of the Vermonters^ a product 
of his school-days, The Vaudois Teacher^ and TJie 

^ Pickard's Life of Whittier, vol. i. 



THE CRISIS 241 

Star of Bethlehem are selected by Professor Carpenter 
as the only ones of poetic value. ^ 

From 1832 to 1836, Whittier was again upon the 
farm struggling to make a living for his 
mother, his sister, his aunt who lived with 
them, and himself. We may recall the situation at this 
period of the other writers whose lives have been al- 
ready noted. It was in 1832 that Emerson resigned his 
pastorate in Boston and retired to Concord ; Poe, re- 
cently discharged from West Point, was in Baltimore 
trying to support himself by hack-work for the maga- 
zines ; Hawthorne was dreaming in the seclusion of his 
hermit-like existence in Salem; Longfellow was now 
settled in his professorship at Bowdoin. Bryant, of 
course, representative of the earlier generation, had 
emerged from his period of struggle, and had been for 
three years editor of the Post. For Whittier, now in 
his twenty-fifth year, the future was full of uncertainty. 
Politics seemed to offer the only field of promise, but 
this field he hesitated to enter ; — as he wrote to Mrs. 
Sigourney, " There is something inconsistent in the char- 
acter of a poet and a modern politician." ^ A year later 
he wrote to the same correspondent : — 

" Of poetry I have nearly taken my leave, and a pen is 
getting to be something of a stranger to me. I have been com- 
pelled again to plunge into the political whirlpool, for I have 
found that my political reputation is more influential than 
my poetical." ^ 

But in 1833, Whittier's vocation was made clear. It 
was the turning-point in his life. The poet found in- 
spiration in an unexpected theme. 

^ See Carpenter's John Greenleaf Whittier, p. 100. 
2 Letter, February 2, 1832. 

^ January, 1833. Both letters are quoted by Pickard and by Car- 
penter. 



242 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

The anti-slavery movement, which five years earlier 
^jjg had enlisted the extreme energies of the rad- 

Aboutionist. ical and lion-hearted Garrison, had already 
appealed to the humanitarian spirit of Whittier. He 
was as strong an idealist as any transcendentalist of 
Boston or Concord, and could not be otherwise than 
strongly sympathetic with the ultimate purpose of the 
movement. At twenty-six, therefore, the poet allied 
himself for better or for worse with the abolitionists. 
For twenty-seven years Whittier was one of the fore- 
most among those identified with this cause. He was a 
delegate to the first National Anti- Slavery Convention 
at Philadelphia in 1833, and signed its Declaration. 
Two years later he was mobbed in Concord, New Hamp- 
shire, while traveling with an anti-slavery agitator. He 
was threatened in Boston. In 1838, he took charge of 
the organ of the Society, the Pennsylvania Freeman^ 
published in Philadelphia, and again encountered a 
mob, which sacked and burned his office. Throughout 
this turbulent experience, his courage and zeal knew no 
limit. The shy and gentle Quaker had become the fear- 
less advocate of an unpopular crusade. In 1838, he 
published at his own expense a pamphlet, Justice and 
Expediency^ which exerted a wide influence. The verses 
which he wrote rang like the voice of a trumpet through 
the land. Randolph of Roanohe^ Massachusetts to 
Virginia^ To Faneuil Hall^ The Slave- Ships^ The 
Hunter of Men, Clerical Oppressors, The Pastoral 
Letter: these poems illustrate various phases of the 
poet's utterance during these momentous years. When 
we compare Whittier's Voices of Freedom (1846) with 
Longfellow's Poems on Slavery (1842), we feel at once 
the difference in the spirit of the two men in this mat- 
ter. Longfellow's verses are " literary " ; Whittier's are 
the vehement utterances of emotion and conviction. 



POLITICS AND JOURNALISM 243 

" They were written," said the poet, " with up expectation 
that they would survive the occasions which called them forth : 
they were protests, alarm signals, trumpet-calls to action, 
words wrung from the writer's heart, forged at white heat, 
and of course lacking the finish and careful word-selection 
which reflection and patient brooding over them might have 
given. Such as they are, they belong to the history of the 
Anti-Slavery movement, and may serve as way-marks of its 
progress." ^ 

It is interesting to see how loyal Whittier remained 
to the ideals and inspirations of this period, the distinc- 
tive epoch in his life. " The simple fact is," he wrote to 
E. L. Godkin, " that I cannot be sufficiently grateful 
to the Divine Providence that so early called my atten- 
tion to the great interests of humanity, saving me from 
the poor ambitions and miserable jealousies of a self- 
ish pursuit of literary reputation." ^ The poet himself 
never regretted the fact that this alliance had placed 
these limitations upon his verse; he rather saw in it 
the real inspiration of his life, the true birth of poetical 
power. " My lad, if thee would win success, join thy- 
self to some unpopular but noble cause," said he in 
after years to a youth who came to him for counsel. 

In 1835, Mr. Whittier was elected as representative 
in the Massachusetts legislature, and at the pontics and 
close of the term was reelected ; but ill health Jo^u^aWsm. 
prevented further service. In 1836, the homestead at 
East Haverhill was sold and the adjoining town of Ames- 
bury became the poet's residence, his mother and his 
younger sister, Elizabeth, making his home. For a time 
he was again associated with one or another local news- 
paper; and from 1847 to 1860, he was corresponding 

1 From the Introduction to Whittier^s Poetical Works, vol. i (Hough- 
ton Mifflin Company). 

2 See John Greenleaf Whittier, by Bliss Perry. 



244 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

editor of the New Era^^ published in Washington, the 
mouthpiece of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
Society. It was in this paper that a number of Whittier's 
poems were first printed, including IcJiabod (1850), that 
most effective utterance of scorn and grief, inspired by 
the Seventh of March speech of Daniel Webster. 

But meanwhile Whittier's pen had not been employed 
Literary exclusively on writings for the cause. In 1836, 
Work. his narrative poem Mogg Megone had been 

published — afterward a thorn in the poet's flesh, for to 
his mature taste it did not appear deserving of a perma- 
nent place in his works. He said that it reminded him 
of "a big Indian in his war paint, strutting about in Sir 
Walter Scott's plaid." In 1843, Whittier published Xays 
of My Home. The Songs of Labor appeared in 1850; 
The Chapel of the Hermits^ and Other Poems^ in 1853; 
The Panorama^ and Other Poems, in 1856 ; and Nome 
Ballads, in 1860. In these collections Whittier was tak- 
ing his position as distinctively the poet of New England. 
Here are nature -poems: Hampton Beach, Lakeside, and 
Sujnmer hy the Lakeside, April, and The Last Walk in 
Autumn; narrative poems embodying old New England 
legends : Cassandra Southwick, Skipjjer Lreson's Ride^ 
and The Garrison of Cape Ann; idylls of the farm : 
Maud Muller, The Barefoot Boy ; 'dud in deeper vein, 
the exquisite ballad. Telling the Bees, quaintly remi- 
niscent of the New England setting, like the rest. Here, 
too, we find the strongly personal poems. My Psalm, 
Memories, and My Playmate. While Whittier's prose 
works have never attracted much attention, we may note 
the publication during this period of the following 
volumes: The Stranger in Lowell (1845), a series of 
sketches written while the writer was editing for a brief 

1 Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published first in the Era in 
1851. 



IN WAR TIME 245 

period a newspaper in the city named ; Tlie Supernatu- 
ralism of New England (1847); Leaves from Mar- 
garet SmitNs Journal (1849), an attractive study of 
life in the Massachusetts Bay Province, realistically pre- 
sented and worthy of a wider reading ; Old Portraits 
and Modern Sketches (1850), and Literary Recrea- 
tions and Miscellanies (1854), both volumes made up 
of essays and studies which had appeared in the Era, 

During the years of civil war, Whittier published 
two volumes. In War Time (1864) and Na- in war 
tional Lyrics (1865), which included the Time, 
poems inspired by the events of this exciting period. 
Like the earlier songs born of the movement against 
slavery, these compositions lack art and finish ; they 
were written in the ardor of conflict and sent immedi- 
ately into print without the opportunity to meditate 
and correct. Waiting and The Watchers are among the 
best of these war lyrics ; while in Barbara Frietchie 
the poet produced what is often described as the finest 
ballad of the struggle, although the story told in the 
poem is now discredited. Laus Deo^ the most stirring 
of these lyrics, has an interesting history. It was com- 
posed while the poet was sitting in the Friends' Meet- 
ing-House in Amesbury, at the regular Fifth Day 
meeting, listening to the bells of jubilation which an- 
nounced the passage of the constitutional amendment 
abolishing slavery, January 31, 1865. 

" It is donevj 
Clang of bell and roar of g-un 
Send the tidings up and down." 

"All sat in silence, but on his return to his home, he re- 
cited a portion of the poem, not yet committed to paper, to 
his housemates in the garden room. ' It wrote itself, rather 
sang itself, while the bells rang,' he wrote to Lucy Larcom." ^ 
1 The Cambridge Edition of Whittier's Poems. 



246 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

In 1866, Whittier published his masterpiece, Snow- 
gjjQ^_ Bounds a Winter Idyl. This beautiful poem 
Bound. is a thoroughly realistic picture of the farm 
in the grasp of a New England winter. The family- 
circle grouped in homely comfort about the roaring 
fireplace is that of the poet's own frugal home, but it 
is typical of rural life in the New England of the six- 
ties ; and the portraits are representative of the sturdy 
class to which the poet's family belonged. Snow- 
Bound takes its legitimate place beside Goldsmith's 
Deserted Village and Burns's The Cotter'' s Saturday 
Night. In Whittier's poem, the personal element is 
strong. The devoted sister, Elizabeth, "our youngest 
and our dearest," had died in 1864 ; perhaps it was 
this event which had stirred the poet's memories of 
childhood — certainly it was the inspiration of the ten- 
derest passage in the poem. Snow-Bound brought its 
author his first substantial pecuniary returns. The sales 
were very large ; from the first edition he received 
$10,000, and the financial burden of many years was 
permanently removed. 

The large success of Snow-Bound was repeated a 
TheTenton twelvemonth later, when the collection of nar- 
the Beach, rative poems entitled The Tent on the Beach 
appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. When the latter 
poems were published in book form they began to sell 
at the rate of a thousand copies a day. " This will never 
do," wrote the poet in humorous self -depreciation to his 
publisher, James T. Fields ; " the swindle is awful ; Bar- 
num is a saint to us." The comrades of the Beach were 
the poet himself, Mr. James T. Fields, and the noted 
traveler as well as all-around man of letters, Bayard 
Taylor. The poems thus grouped in the manner of 
Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), are 
sombre in tone, sad stories of ill-fated ships and legends 



PERSONAL TRAITS 247 

of the days of delusion ; no one of them has gained a 
strong hold on popular favor. The descriptions of the 
sea, and the familiar portrait of the poet — 

*' And one there was, a dreamer born, 
Who, with a mission to fulfil, 
Had left the Muses' haunts to turn 
The crank of an opinion-mill " ^ — 

these are the happiest touches in the work. 

Successive volumes of his verse continued to appear 
at frequent intervals during the remainder of Whit- 
tier's life. He was an old man in his eighty-fifth year, 
universally venerated, when the final volume was pub- 
lished. 

During these latter years the poet lived a retired and 
peaceful life, impelled thereto by delicate Atsnn- 
health and the natural shyness of his disposi- ^^''"^ 
tion. Yet he never lost interest in public affairs or his 
active sympathy with the ultimate results of that cause 
which had enlisted his energies in youth. The educa- 
tion of the freedmen in the South, the assistance of 
individuals who had made their way to the North, were 
matters of vital interest to him. He continued to make 
his home in Amesbury, but visited with friends in Hamp- 
ton Falls, or with relatives at Oak Knoll in Danvers. 
There was a quiet corner in the White Mountains 
where he loved to sojourn for a few weeks in the heat 
of summer ; and the artistic home of Celia Thaxter at 
the Isles of Shoals was also a favorite retreat. 

Whittier was the only one of this group of New Eng- 
land writers who never went abroad. Indeed, personal 
after the poet settled in the home at Ames- ^'**^*' 
bury, he seldom ventured far from his own fireside. The 
society of his kindred and of a few intimate friends he 

^ Head the entire descrijjtion in the first poem of the collection. 



248 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

dearly loved ; but he was too diffident to enjoy large 
companies, and he shrank from all publicity. The 
farmer of East Haverhill was most at home with com- 
mon folks, understanding them perfectly and talking 
with them in a language they could understand. He 
used the pronoun "thee," the Quaker form of address, 
and always remained heartily loyal to the simple man- 
ners of the Friends. The militant spirit of his anti- 
slavery poems wholly disappeared with the war, and 
only gentleness, universal good-will, and a beautiful sim- 
plicity of religious faith characterized his later verse. 

The popularity of Whittier increased among all 
classes of readers. His birthday, like that of Longfellow, 
was observed with noteworthy tributes of esteem. Upon 
his eightieth anniversary, the Governor of Massachu- 
setts with other distinguished citizens visited the poet 
at Oak Knoll to present the congratulations of his na- 
tive state. Upon one of these anniversary occasions, 
Whittier was deeply touched by a telegram sent by the 
Southern Forestry Congress assembled in Florida: — 

" In remembrance of your birthday, we have planted a live- 
oak tree to your memory, which, like the leaves of the tree, 
will be forever green." 

Together with his gentle dignity of bearing and his 
modest shyness of manner, Whittier possessed a keen 
sense of humor and had a homely wit that flashed out 
in conversation with his friends. Among these there 
were a number of distinguished women : Mrs. Stowe, 
Lucy Larcom, Alice and Phoebe Gary, Sarah Orne 
Jewett, Gelia Thaxter, and Mrs. James T. Fields. 
With Longfellow, Emerson, and Holmes, Whittier had 
a pleasant but not an intimate acquaintance. In per- 
sonal appearance the poet was tall and spare ; his eyes 
were unusually brilliant, large, and dark; his smile was 



PLACE IN LITERATURE 249 

wonderfully benignant. Although he suffered much 
from ill health, he was patient, cheerful, and sweet- 
tempered. His final illness was brief. He died at Hamp- 
ton, September 7, 1892. Almost his last words were, 
"Love — love to all the world." The funeral services 
were held in the little garden of the home at Amesbury, 
and the poet was buried in the village cemetery in the 
family lot. 

In comparison with our other American poets, Whit- 
tier must be recognized as essentially provin- -y^jiityer's 

cial. Aside from the fact that a large body of Place in 
, . , , , . , Literature, 

his verse, the anti-slavery poems, was neces- 
sarily of temporary value, we must remember also that 
the best portion of his work belongs wholly to New 
England. It is nevertheless true that while this cir- 
cumstance places a limitation upon its scope, it does 
not detract from the strength and value of his poetry. 
While the poet has never received, like Longfellow and 
Poe, the recognition of other peoples than our own, this 
restriction of his field, with the fidelity and vividness of 
his interpretation, is precisely what gives to Whittier 
his chief distinction here at home. Nor was he in the 
larger sense a great poet. No one recognized the tech- 
nical faults of his verse more frankly than Whittier 
himself. " I should be hung for my bad rhymes anywhere 
south of Mason and Dixon's line," he wrote to Mr. 
Fields. That he did not hold a place with the men of 
profound insight, the " seers," he knew equally well. 
His own modest estimate of his poetic gifts he has ex- 
pressed in stanzas of unusual beauty, which to some 
extent are themselves a contradiction of the statement : 

" The rigor of a frozen clime, 
The harshness of an untaught ear, 

The jarring words of one whose rhyme 

Beat often Labor's hurried time, 
Or Duty's rugged march through storm and strife, are here. 



250 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

" Of mystic beauty, dreamy grace, 
No rounded art the lack supplies ; 

Unskilled the subtle lines to trace, 

Or softer shades of Nature's face, 
I view her com.mon forms with unanointed eyes. 

" Nor mine the seer-like power to show 
The secrets of the heart and mind ; 

To drop the plummet-line below 

Our common world of joy and woe, 
A more intense despair or brighter hope to find." ^ 

The fine artistic taste of Longfellow Whittier lacked, 
as he lacked the culture of broad reading and of travel ; 
but he possessed the genuine love of nature and human- 
ity ; he had the virility of a strong character, free from 
all artificiality, the ardor of the truest patriotism, and, 
at the outset of his career, the inestimable advantage 
of consecration to an uplifting cause. 

The student will read, of course, the more noted of the 
Suggestions Anti-Slavery Poems, including those mentioned 
lor Reading, jn the preceding paragraphs. The Shoemakers and 
The Huskers will serve as good examples of The Songs of 
Labor. The group of Personal Poems contains Ichahod and 
The Lost Occasion, the two impressive compositions based 
upon the career of Daniel Webster, and also noteworthy 
tributes to his friends and associates, Garrison and Sumner. 
Here, likewise, are interesting verses inscribed to fellow poets : 
Bryant, Halleck, Bayard Taylor, Longfellow {The Poet and 
the Children), Lowell, and Holmes ; most happy of all, the 
poem entitled Burns. Among the Narrative and Legendary 
Poems are some of the most familiar of Whittier's compo- 
sitions : The Vaudois Teacher, Barclay of Ury (one of sev- 
eral which deal with Quaker themes). The Angels of Buena 
Vista, Maud Muller, Skipper Ireson's Bide, Telling the 
Bees, My Playmate, and Among the Hills. The Poems of 
Nature deserve some study in detail, and should be compared 
with those of Longfellow and Bryant. Here we find descrip- 
1 Proem, prefixed to the edition of 1848. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 251 

tive passages of simple yet compelling beauty. Such is this 
stanza from Sunset on the Bearcamp : — 

" Touched by a light that hath no name, 

A glory never sung, 
Aloft on sky and mountain wall 

Are God's great pictures hung. 
How changed the summits vast and old ! 

No longer granite-browed, 
They melt in rosy mist ; the rock 

Is softer than the cloud ; 
The valley holds its breath ; no leaf 

Of all its elms is twirled : 
The silence of eternity 

Seems falling on the world." 

The following afford good illustrations of the poet's de- 
scriptive power : April, Summer by the Lakeside, The Last 
Walk in Autumn, The River Path, and The Trailing Ar- 
butus. It will be quickly noted that Whittier is always the 
subjective, the reflective poet ; that, like Bryant, he reads a 
lesson in the scene. Thus, when wandering in the dusk of twi- 
light along the river path, he comes upon a sudden opening 
in the hills through whose green gates streams the " long, 
slant splendor" of the setting sun, bridging "the shaded 
stream with gold," he thinks of the river of death — " the 
river dark " ; and prays : — 

" So let the hills of doubt divide, 
So bridge with faith the sunless tide ! " * 

And when, under dead boughs, amid dry leaves and moss, 
he finds the perfumed arbutus, he says : — 

*' As, pausing, o'er the lonely flower I bent, 
I thought of lives thus lowly, clogged and pent, 

Which yet find room. 
Through care and cumber, coldness and decay, 
To lend a sweetness to the ungenial day, 

And make the sad earth happier for their bloom." ^ 

Of the Religious Poems, one stands forth preeminent ; no 
other American poem has ever touched with its message of 
1 The Biver Path. 2 Xhe Trailing Arbutus. 



252 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

trustfulness the hearts of devout Christians more universally 
than The Eternal Goodness, — 

" I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air ; 
I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care." 

The poem Our Master is also full of the deep religious feel- 
ing so characteristic of the Quaker poet, and from its stanzas 
have been arranged five of Whittier's best-known hymns. 

Special attention should be given to a few of the poems clas- 
sified as Subjective and Heminiscent. Here we find The 
Barefoot Boy, In School-Days, and Memories, poems which, 
besides affording intimate glimpses of the poet's child-life, 
are to be recognized as among his best compositions. To these 
must finally be added Snow-Bound, most intimately personal 
of all his works, and yet artistically his masterpiece. The more 
this little " classic " is read, the more its reader is impressed 
with its simple strength and beauty. The apt phrasing, the 
vivid portraiture, the happy touch of " local coloring," the 
easy movement of its simple measure, its idyllic atmosphere 
of domestic affection, of serene and untroubled faith — these 
are the qualities which give the poem its place with the best 
in our literature. 

The Complete Works of Whittier are published in seven 

. ^ , . volumes by Houghton Mifflin Company, also the 
Authorities. ^ ... -^ ^,.J^ o ., t^ t ^ 

Cambridge Jidition or the Jroems, m one volume. 

Snow-Bound and The Tent on the Beach, together with 
other poems, are published in two numbers of the River- 
side Literature Series. The Life and Letters of John G, 
Whittier (2 vols.), by Samuel T. Pickard, is the standard 
biography. The best brief biography is the Whittier in the 
American Men of Letters Series, by G. R. Carpenter. The 
little book Whittier : Notes of his Life and of his Friend- 
ships, by Mrs. Annie Fields, is a charming study of the man. 
Whittier-Land, by S. T, Pickard, is also valuable. In criti- 
cism, consult Stedman's Poets of America, Vincent's Ameri- 
can Literary Masters, and the histories of American litera- 



JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 253 

ture by Richardson and Trent. John Greenlcaf Whittier, 
by Bliss Perry (a brief study of the poet), and Whittier for 
To-day, by the same writer, in the Atlantic Mo7ithly for De- 
cember, 1907, are appreciative memorials of the hundredth 
anniversary of the poet's birth. 



III. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL: 1819-1891. 

James Russell Lowell, the youngest of the New Eng- 
land group and the most versatile, was born in Cam- 
bridge, February 22, 1819. 

His American ancestry dated from colonial times, and, 

like Emerson's, was throughout representative . 

. . ° ■•■ Ancestry. 

of the academic class ; his father, grandfather, 
and great-grandfather were graduates of Harvard Col- 
lege. It was Lowell's grandfather who, in 1780, intro- 
duced into the Bill of Rights of the state the clause 
abolishing slavery in Massachusetts. An uncle was the 
founder of the Lowell Institute in Boston. The poet's 
father was pastor of the West Church in that city. 
Mrs. Lowell, a woman of intensely imaginative mind, 
a lover of poetry and music, was of Scotch parent- 
age, her father having been a native of the Orkney 
Islands. 

The home of the Lowells, appropriately known as 
Elm wood, was situated not far beyond the 
Craigie house, somewhat off the main avenue 
of travel, a large mansion, surrounded by trees — a 
"bowery loneliness" which drew the bluebirds, orioles, 
and robins; beyond — the meadows, a stretch of marsh, 
and the Charles River, — 

" a stripe of nether sky, 
Now hid by rounded apple-trees between, 

Whose gaps the misplaced sail sweeps bellying by, 
Now flickering- golden through a woodland screen." ^ 

^ An Indian- Summer Reverie. 



254 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

" Ah, this is a pleasant place ; I wonder who lives 
here, what little boy" — his father said one day to 
James, as they returned from a drive and passed through 
the gate of Elmwood. Within the house were books, 
Rev. Mr. Lowell's well-selected library, among which 
the boy browsed knowingly. As a child he was read to 
sleep from Tlie Faerie Queene^ and rehearsed its ad- 
venturous episodes to his playmates. 

After the first study days had been passed in attend- 
ance at a classical school in Cambridge, where 
OoUoge. , . , 

Latin and Greek were the principal branches 

taught, young Lowell entered Harvard College in 
1834 — two years before Longfellow took up the duties 
of his professorship. Here Lowell found further oppor- 
tunity for wide and varied reading. In his own words, 
he read " almost everything except the text-books pre- 
scribed by the Faculty." After several whimsical 
breaches of academic discipline, Lowell, near the close 
of the senior year, was " rusticated," being required to 
make his residence in Concord, there to remain until 
Commencement Day. His father and mother were at the 
time absent in Europe. The young man had already 
been elected class-poet, and during his enforced stay in 
the pleasant village where Emerson had recently settled, 
the student-poet worked upon his production. With 
Emerson, who was then thirty-five, Lowell now made per- 
sonal acquaintance, walking and talking with him. One 
of the events of his college course had been the delivery of 
the famous Phi Beta Kappa address by Emerson at the 
preceding Commencement in 1837, which had prof oundly 
impressed the minds of the young men who heard it.^ 
Still this independent youth, who always persisted in 
thinking for himself, was at this time by no means a docile 
disciple. In his class-poem he satirized the transcendent- 
^ See page 164. 



256 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

alists along with the abolitionists, although before many- 
months elapsed he allied himself strenuously with both. 
The poem, which he was unable to present in person on 
class day, was privately printed and distributed among 
his friends. ** The year Lowell graduated," says Edward 
Everett Hale, " we were as sure as we are now that in 
him was first-rate poetical genius, and that here was to 
be one of the leaders of the literature of the time."^ 

In his choice of a profession, Lowell selected the law; 
The Law ^^^ ^^ 1840 was admitted to the bar. Lowell's 

^^- verse received its first potent impulse in his 
love for Maria White, the sister of one of 
his classmates, a girl of remarkable beauty and rare 
mental gifts, herself a poet by nature, and an enthusi- 
ast in various humanitarian reforms. Their engagement 
began in 1840. Before the twelvemonth ended, Lowell 
published his first volume, a collection of poems with 
the title A Year's Life. During the next three years 
he wrote busily, finding a ready market for his poems 
and sketches in leading periodicals like the Boston 
Miscellany^ the Dial^ the United States Magazine, 
and Graham's, then edited by Poe. Between Poe and 
Lowell there was at this time an interesting correspond- 
ence, Poe referring to Lowell's work in terms most ap- 
preciative. Meanwhile the young lawyer had not found 
the legal profession much to his taste ; and after three 
years' waiting for the " First Client," of whom he wrote 
humorously, Lowell abandoned law and elected litera- 
ture. In January, 1843, he started a magazine of his 
own. 

The new magazine was an ambitious enterprise. The 
first number contained contributions by Lowell, Poe, 
Hawthorne, and Elizabeth Barrett (afterward Mrs. 

^ James Russell Lowell and his Friends, p. 40. Dr. Hale graduated 
in 1839. 



THE ABOLITIONIST 257 

Browning). Had it not been for a serious difficulty 
with his eyes, which compelled him to go to The Liter- 
New York for treatment, Lowell's first edito- a^y Life. 
rial experience might have been longer; as it was, the 
venture came to an untimely close. With its third issue, 
the Pioneer expired, and its editor was left eighteen 
hundred dollars in debt. At the end of the year, Lowell 
published a volume of Poems which included two or three 
of marked excellence. The Shepherd of King Adme- 
tuSy An Incident in a Railway Car^ and Phcecus being 
among the number. In December, 1844, Lowell was 
married. For a few months thereafter, he was employed 
in Philadelphia as an editorial writer on the Pennsyl- 
vanig;^ Freeman^ the paper edited by Whittier a few 
years earlier. In the spring of 1845, the Lowells re- 
turned to%C^mbridge. Passing through New York, 
Lowell stopped to call upon Poe, but the visit proved 
one of embarrassment ; he found Poe (as recorded by 
Mrs. Clemm) " not quite himself." Life at Elmwood 
was now delightfully idyllic, despite the limitations of 
a small and somewhat uncertain income. Longfellow, 
although twelve years the senior, was already a con- 
genial friend ; and the social circle of the college 
community was enlarged through the easy nearness of 
Boston. The poet himself was fairly embarked on his 
career as a man of letters, and his reputation as a writer 
was firmly established. At the close of 1844, Lowell 
published a volume of essays entitled Conversations 
on Some of the Old Poets, This volume and also 
the Poems of the previous year were republished in 
London. 

The ardor of Lowell in the political movement of these 
pregnant years must not be overlooked, for TheAboU- 
it is vitally connected with an important phase ^^o^is*- 
of his literary work. The interest of his wife in some 



268 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

of the reform enterprises so numerous in the early forties 
had enlisted the interest of the poet in these same re- 
forms ; but definite inspiration came with the develop- 
ment of his own democratic instincts and his own 
humanitarian sympathies. In 1843, he became an abo- 
litionist, and an ardent supporter of that movement 
which had won Whittier as its champion ten years be- 
fore. In 1843, Lowell wrote and published the Stanzas 
on Freedom and the sonnet Wendell Phillips, The 
Present Crisis, that superb climax of lyric eloquence, 
came in 1845; "for twenty years the solemn monitory 
music of this poem never ceased to reecho in public 
halls." * Its thrilling lines served as texts for the leading 
orators of the North. Phillips and Sumner quoted its 
stanzas in their impassioned addresses. Its resonant call 
to action was voiced with the prophetic note ^ authority. 

" New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth ; 

They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of 
Truth ; 

Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! we ourselves must Pilgrims be, 

Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate win- 
ter sea, 

Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key." 

Henceforth, throughout that epoch of stormy debate, 
the young Cambridge poet stood side by side with 
Whittier, one of the two great champions of the cause 
in verse. 

In 1846, Lowell's genius was revealed in a new and 
Satirist and thoroughly original vein. The Boston Cou- 
Humorist. j,^gy, began the publication of a series of 
poems in genuine Yankee dialect, purporting to be the 
work of one Hosea Biglow. These compositions were 
accompanied by introductory letters, commenting on 
the work in hand, and by editorial notes signed H. W., 

^ James Bussell Lowell, by Ferris Greenslet. 



SATIRIST AND HUMORIST 269 

these initials standing for the Rev. Horner Wilbur, 
A. M., pastor of the First Church, in Jaalam, and critical 
sponsor for his young parishioner, Hosea. The Biglow 
Papers^ as they were called when the series was collected 
and published in 1848, present in crisp and pungent 
satire the widely felt opposition of the North to the war 
with Mexico. Lowell himself was moved by the convic- 
tion that the real purpose of the war was to expand slave 
territory, and thus voiced the protest of New England 
against this design. The work is filled with epigram 
and sarcasm, which of course were most effective at the 
time which gave them their application. It is difficult 
for us now to appreciate how effective these shafts of 
Lowell's exuberant wit really were ; but they are yet 
recognized as the keenest examples of political satire 
in our own literature, and among the best ever writ- 
ten. In the same year which brought the publication of 
The Biglow Papers^ 1848, another humorous poem of 
some length and of equal pungency appeared. This was 
the Fahle for Critics^ a witty review of contemporary 
American literature. It was in the strict sense an appre- 
ciation of the writers of the time, in which compliment 
is tempered with shrewd hits at their failings ; a piece 
of good-natured fun which it is impossible to read with- 
out a sense of the critical insight of its author. For 
example : — 

" There comes Emerson first, -whose rich words, every one, 
Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on, 
Whose prose is grand verse, while his verse, the Lord knows, 
Is some of it pr — No, 't is not even prose " — 

and so on with the rest of the choir, including Lowell 
himself. The Fable was written rapidly and without 
thought of publication ; as the various parts were com- 
pleted they were sent to a friend in New York. Eventu- 
ally they were gathered and printed, as Dr. Holmes 



260 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

said, " capped with a percussion preface, and cocked 

with a title-page as apropos as a wink to a joke." 

In sharp contrast to the two works just described is 

The Vision of Sir LaunfaL composed and 
SlrLaunlal. i v i j • ^i • ^ i_i lo^o 

pubhshed m this same notable year, 1848. 

This, the most popular and one of the most brilliant 

of the poet's compositions, is a bold excursion into the 

twilight land of Arthurian romance which Tennyson was 

to make his own.* The exquisite preludes to the two 

parts of rather slender narrative reveal Lowell's power 

of lyric description at its best. 

" And what ia so rare as a day in June ? " 

introduces the familiar passage which everybody recog- 
nizes as the supreme tribute of poetry to the season of 
perfect days, and distinguishes the singer as the poet 
of the month. 

Oftener than we are apt to remember, these years of 
Personal Lowell's early manhood were invaded by 
Experiences, ^q^yq^. In 1847, the parents lost their little 
daughter Blanche, scarce a twelvemonth old ; three years 
later. Rose, their third child, died in infancy. The in- 
timate expression of the poet's grief is given in the 
affecting lyrics She Came and Went, The Changeling, 
and The First Snowfall, In 1850, occurred the death 
of the poet's mother, from whom he had inherited the 
mystical tendency so clearly felt in his serious work. 
Her intensely imaginative mind had become disordered, 
and for several years she had been an inmate of an 
asylum. The cloud had rested heavily over the house- 
hold, but bitterness was still in store. In 1852, while 

^ In the preceding' year (1847) Tennyson made a tour of Cornwall, the 
scene of the Arthurian legends. Six years earlier he had published Sir 
Galahad, Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere, and Morte d^ Arthur. The 
other Idylls came in later years. 



PROFESSOR AND EDITOR 261 

enjoying their first trip abroad, the Lowells were again 
bereaved in the death of Walter, their little son, as they 
were spending the winter in Rome. Meanwhile Mrs. 
Lowell's health was declining, and soon after the return 
home, in 1853, the poet buried the wife of his youth. 
His weight of sorrow is felt in Palinode^ After the 
Burial^ and The Dead House. " Something broke my 
life in two," he said later, " and I cannot piece it to- 
gether again." 

In the winter of 1854-1855, Lowell gave a course of 
lectures on Poetry at the Lowell Institute, 3- t ♦ - 
course which established the poet's place as Professor, 
an authority and critic of high rank. At the *"" 
same time he was appointed to be Longfellow's suc- 
cessor in the professorship at Harvard. A year was 
spent in Europe preparatory to entering upon his 
duties at the college. In 1857, coincidently with the 
founding of the Atlantic Monthly^ Mr. Lowell became 
editor-in-chief of that most notable of American maga- 
zines. This was also the year of his marriage to his 
second wife, Miss Frances Dunlap, of Portland, Maine. 
Four years later, Lowell resigned the editorial chair, 
but in 1864 became an associate editor, with his friend 
Charles Eliot Norton, of the North American Review, 
a position which he retained ten years. To these two 
periodicals, Lowell contributed most of his essays on 
literary and nature subjects, including those which ap- 
peared in the volumes Among My Boohs (two series, 
1870,and 1876) and Jfy ^^^^2/ Windows (1871). Fire- 
side Travels, a volume of reminiscent sketches, among 
which is the delightfully humorous Cambridge Thirty 
Years Ago, appeared in 1864. 

During the years of conflict, Lowell was again moved 
to wield the pen of satire. The second series of the 
Biglow Papers appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, be- 



262 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

ginning in 1862 ; they were published collectively in 
The Civil 1867. While not so brilliant as the first 
War. series, there were nevertheless some notable 

examples of Yankee humor and patriotic feeling in 
this group. In The CourtiTb and SunthivH in the Pas- 
toral Line^ the poet exercises the homely dialect upon 
themes remote from those of war. The farm-boy's de- 
scription of springtime in New England is worthy to 
stand with that famous picture of June in The Vision 
of Sir Launfal. 

" Fust come the blackbirds clatt'rin' in tall trees, 
An' settlin' things in windy Congresses, — 

Then saffern swarms swing ofP from all the willera 
So plump they look like yaller caterpillars, 
Then gray hossches'nuts leetle hands unfold 
Softer 'n a baby's be at three days old: 
Thet 's robin-redbreast's almanick ; he knows 
Thet arter this ther 's only blossom-snows ; 



'nuff sed, June's bridesman, poet o' the year, 

Gladness on wings, the bobolink, is here ; 

Half-hid in tip-top apple-blooms he swings. 

Or climbs aginst the breeze with quiverin' wings, 

Or, givin' way to 't in a mock despair, 

Runs down, a brook o' laughter, thru the air." ^ 

Fully in accord with the solemn and ominous spirit 
of the time are The Washers of the Shroud^ written in 
1861, On Board the '76, written for the seventieth 
birthday of the poet Bryant, in 1864, and the Ode He- 
cited at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865. 
This last, one of Lowell's best compositions, was written 
at white heat in two days' time, after the poet had de- 
spaired of accomplishing anything worthy of the occa- 
sion ; then, says he, " something gave me a jog and the 
whole thing came out of me with a rush." ^ Although 
not without technical defects, this sonorous Ode, which 

^ SuntUrC in the Pastoral Line. ^ Letter to R. W. Gilder. 



DIPLOMATIC SERVICE 263 

glows with the patriotic fire so characteristic of its au- 
thor, has come to have a recognized place among the 
choicest compositions of American verse. The tribute to 
Lincoln in the poem is perhaps the best ever paid to 
the memory of the martyred President. 

" Here was a type of the true elder race, 
And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face." 

Other poems, the accumulated compositions of these 
years, were included in a new edition of his Yetse on 
poems, published in 1869. A volume, entitled o*^^' 
Under the Willows, appeared in the same year 
and also The Cathedral, the most important of Lowell's 
subjective poems. When, in 1874, Louis Agassiz, the 
great scientist and teacher, died, the event drew from 
Lowell, who was then in Europe, another masterpiece, 
the poem Agassiz, After the poet's return, two historic 
anniversaries were the inspiration of two more notable 
odes : that read at the one hundredth anniversary of the 
fight at Concord bridge, and Under the Old Elm, on 
the centenary of Washington's taking command of the 
American army. An Ode for the Fourth of July, 1876, 
completed the group published under the title Three 
Memorial Poems, in 1876. These three compositions con- 
firm their author's fame as the foremost of our patri- 
otic poets. Lowell's later compositions were collected in 
the volume Heartsease and Rue (1888). 

Like Irving, Mr. Lowell was called upon to serve 
his country in the responsible and delicate Diplomatic 
position of a representative at foreign courts. Service. 
In 1877, he was appointed minister to Spain, under Pre- 
sident Hayes. He was received in Madrid as a worthy 
successor of the author of Knickerhocher and of Colum- 
bus ; but Lowell found no time for literary work while 
there. The duties of his position, though trying, he dis- 



264 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

charged with success, and in 1880 was transferred to 
the English Court of St. James. Here, in the most im- 
portant of all our diplomatic offices, Lowell was bril- 
liantly successful. It is said that he became one of the 
most popular men in England. The notable writers of 
the time were all his friends. On all public occasions he 
was a welcome guest, and an indispensable participant 
on occasions of any literary significance. He delivered 
addresses at the unveiling of busts of Fielding and 
Coleridge, and was, naturally, the principal speaker 
when the bust of Longfellow was placed in Westminster 
Abbey. In these occasional speeches, Lowell was inevit- 
ably happy — never more successful than in his famous 
address on Democracy^ delivered in 1884, on assuming 
the presidency of the Birmingham and Midland Insti- 
tute. This speech, now classic, was a clear and thoughtful 
exposition of the American idea ; a striking interpreta- 
tion to an English audience of our political system. If 
the charm of Lowell's personality won the hearts of 
Englishmen, the tact and firmness with which he con- 
ducted the affairs of his office commanded their respect. 
Lowell never forgot that he was an American, and no 
one was ever more loyal to the ideals of his country ; 
nor has any of our official representatives done more to 
cement the friendship between the two countries. 

After five years' residence as minister in London, and 
seven years since his departure for Madrid, Lowell re- 
turned to America in 1885. He was again alone ; his 
wife had died in England shortly before his return. 

The remaining years were tinged with the melancholy 
The Last that comes with the breaking up of old asso- 
Activities. ciations and the loss of old friends. His health 
was not robust, yet he was not inactive. He delivered 
a number of public addresses, including a course of 
Lowell Institute lectures in 1887 — again upon his 



LOWELL'S ART 265 

favorite subject, Old English Dramatists. His volume 
of poems, Heartsease and Rue^ was published in 1888, 
together with a volume of Political Essays, In 1889, 
he delivered in New York an address upon Our Lit- 
erature, and wrote an introduction for a new edition 
of Izaak Walton's Comj}leat Angler, The summers of 
1886, 1887, 1888, and 1889, he passed in England, 
making his place of sojourn regularly in the ancient 
town of Whitby, which had been a favorite resort dur- 
ing his official term. His final task was the revision of 
his works. The poet's home was again at Elmwood ; 
and here the shadow fell upon him. He died August 12, 
1891. 

Lowell might, perhaps, have had a higher place 
among the poets had he been more careful 
in his art ; his composition is often marred by 
haste ; he gave little time to revision, and even the more 
important poems were put forth rapidly. But the poet 
was a master of language and of rhythm. In the literary 
training which helps to artistic expression, Lowell had 
the advantage over his contemporaries except Poe and 
Longfellow. The quality which in these two poets has 
appealed so universally to readers abroad as well as at 
home is apparently lacking in Lowell ; but we feel that 
there is a masculine strength in his verse which we do 
not find in Longfellow, and a sincerity of utterance 
that does not appear in Poe. 

A survey of Lowell's work in literature reveals the 
versatility of his genius as well as the gen- General 
eral excellence of his achievement. Not only s^"^ey. 
is he the only American writer who has won high dis- 
tinction in both prose and verse, — except Poe, — but in 
both verse and prose he has touched so many keys with 
such precision and such power, that he must be regarded 
as distinctly the most gifted among American men of 



266 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

letters. He is the only notable critic who has appeared 
on this side the Atlantic; his literary essays may even 
outlive his verse. Through his well-known essay on 
Dante^ his name is permanently associated with the 
critical study of the Italian poet. 

In the role of Hosea Biglow, Lowell appears as the strong- 
Suggestions est of American humorists. No. 1 of the Biglow 
lor Reading. Papers should be read with its epistolary introduc- 
tion to understand the dramatic machinery of the satire. 
No. 3 and No. 6 are good examples of Hosea's utterances. 
Of the second series, The Courtin' and Sunthin^ in the Pas- 
toral Line should be read not only as illustrating the poet's 
best achievement in the use of Yankee dialect, but also as 
remarkable presentations of the sentimental phases of rural 
New England life. Lowell's wit is exhibited most brilliantly 
in the Fable for Critics. To appreciate this, and also some- 
thing of his keen critical insight, read the passages portray- 
ing Emerson, Bryant, Whittier, Cooper, Poe, Holmes, and 
Lowell himself. The solemn strength of Lowell's patriotism 
is felt especially in The Present Crisis and the Commemora- 
tion Ode. Along with the portraiture of Lincoln in this Ode 
should be read the fifth, sixth, and seventh strophes of Under 
the Old Elm, for that other masterly description of Washing- 
ton. As a nature poet, Lowell may be seen at his best in An 
Indian-Summer Reverie, To a Dandelion, the preludes in 
the Vision of Sir Launfal, Under the Willows, and Fictures 
from Appledore. Lowell was much freer than Longfellow in 
the lyrical expression of his own joys and griefs. The love- 
poems of his earliest volume tell the story of his own romance, 
as Palinode, The Wind-Harp, After the Burial, and The 
Dead House are the poignant memorials of his great be- 
reavement. These poems are remarkable for the intensity and 
frankness of their expression. Wonderfully pathetic are the 
three poems on the death of the child : The Changeling, She 
Came and Went, and The First Snowfall. On Board the 
'76 (in honor of Bryant), To H W. L., To Whittier on his 
Seventy-fifth Birthday, and To Holmes on his Seventy- 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 267 

fifth Birthday are occasional poems which have a strong 
personal interest. Of the miscellaneous poems, select the 
sonnet To the Spirit of Keats, The Shepherd of King 
Admetus, Columbus , The Vision of Sir Launfal, The Sing- 
ing Leaves, and Turner's Old Temeraire. 

In Lowell's prose writings the student should read selec- 
tions, at least, from Cambridge Thirty Years Ago, My Gar- 
den Acquaintance, and Democracy. Of the literary essays, 
that upon Chaucer is particularly attractive. 

The Complete Works of Lowell are published by Houghton 
Mifflin Company. The Cambridge Edition con- 
tains the poems in a single volume. The Letters of 
Lowell, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, should not be over- 
looked ; they have a distinguished place in our literature. 
Among biographies, that by Horace E. Scudder is standard. 
The most recent life of Lowell, especially suggestive in the 
critical study of his work and place in literature, is that by 
Ferris Greenslet (1905). James Russell Lowell and his 
Friends, by Edward Everett Hale, is a volume rich in remi- 
niscence of the poet and his generation. T. W. Higginson, in 
Cheerful Yesterdays, W. D. Howells, in Literary Friends 
and Acquaintance, and J. T. Trowbridge, in My Own 
Story, have written of Lowell. There are many noteworthy 
essays on the poet, of which we may mention especially those 
by Barrett Wendell, G. W. Curtis, Henry James, G. E. 
Woodberry, and H. W. Mabie. Stedman, Trent, Richardson, 
and Wendell are authoritative references in criticism. 

IV. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: 1809-1894. 

Although nearly ten years the senior of Lowell, 
Oliver Wendell Holmes survived his younger contempo- 
rary three years, and after Whittier's death in 1892 be- 
came the last member of that distinguished group which 
gave New England her preeminence in nineteenth-cen- 
tury literature. A genial humorist in verse and prose, 
a gracious and happy " poet of occasions," a shrewd 
observer of the significant commonplaces of experience, 



268 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

and a master in the art of easy discourse upon things in 
general, Dr. Holmes fairly holds his position in Amer- 
ican letters, an original and conspicuous figure, while, 
perhaps, less highly gifted than any of these poets with 
whom he was so intimately associated. 

Like Emerson and Lowell, Holmes was a typical re- 
presentative of what he himself termed the 
and " Brahmin caste " of New England.* His fa- 

CMidhood. ^ijgj.^ a^ descendant of one of the early settlers 
of Connecticut, was Rev. Abiel Holmes, for forty years 
a minister in Cambridge, and an author of some note. 
The poet's mother, Sarah Wendell Holmes, whom he 
closely resembled in slightness of figure and vivacity of 
spirits, was a lineal descendant of Governor Bradstreet 
and his wife, Anne, best remembered for her poetical 
gifts and celebrated in her generation as the Tenth 
Muse.^ His great-grandmother was the Dorothy Quincy 
whose portrait is so charmingly presented in the poem 
Dorothy Q. Wendell Phillips was his cousin, 
^^^^he poet was born at Cambridge, August 29, 1809, 
in a picturesque gambrel-roofed house on the edge of 
the Harvard campus.^ His earliest literary explorations 
were, like those of Lowell, associated with his father's 
study, where, as he says, he " bumped about among 
books," from the time when he was hardly taller than 
one of his father's folios. 

When ten years old, Wendell was placed in a school 

where Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Mar(?a- 
Educatlon. „ ,, i .i -r^. ^ 

ret h uller were also pupils, r ive years later, 

as it was in the mind of Rev. Abiel Holmes that his son 

should become a minister, the boy was sent to Andover 

to take his preparatory course in Phillips Academy, 

under the sober influences which dominated that ortho- 

^ Elsie Venner, chap. i. ^ gee pag^e 35. 

^ Described ia The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, first paper. 



EARLY PRODUCTIONS 269 

r 

dox community.* Holmes remained but a year at the 
Academy, however, and returned to Cambridge to enter 
Harvard College in 1825, becoming a member of the 
famous class of 1829,^ for whose successive anniversa- 
ries some of his most notable poems were composed. 

After graduation, Holmes decided upon the legal pro- 
fession and entered the Harvard Law School, uariy 
It was at this period that he published his Productions, 
earliest verse. The first of his poems to attract attention 
was Old Ironsides (1830). This spirited lyric was in- 
spired by the announcement that the frigate Constitu- 
tion, then lying in the navy yard at Charlestown, was 
to be dismantled and broken up. Hastily writing the 
ringing lines which so effectively stirred the patriotic 
feelings of the nation, the young law student sent his 
verses to the editor of the Boston Advertiser^ from 
whose columns they were immediately copied far and 
wide. The astonished Secretary of the Navy recalled 
his order; the "tattered ensign," figuratively speak- 
ing, was not torn down.^ A year after Old Ironsides^ 
Holmes wrote The Last Leaf^ one of his finest poems, 
which with its exquisite blending of humor and pathos 
still remains our choicest example of what is technically 
called " society verse." Nearly all the other poetry of 
this period is broadly humorous, and includes The Ballad 
of the Oyster-Man^ The Height of the Ridiculous^ My 
-4w?z^,and The Comet, In 1831, also, he wrote for the iVei^ 

1 Dr. Holmes gives an account of his school-days in the essay Cinders 
from the Ashes {Pages from an Old Volume of Life). 

2 The class of 1829 included an unusual number of men who became 
prominent in all the professions. Two, whose names are more widely 
known than those of the others, were James Freeman Clarke, the cele- 
brated Boston preacher, and Samuel F. Smith, author of America. 

^ In 1834, the historic ship was rebuilt and continued in commission 
until 1881. Since 1897, she has been lying again at her old anchorage 
at Charlestown, once more rebuilt, and, so far as possible, restored to 
her original appearance. 



270 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

England Magazine two papers entitled The Autocrat 
of the Br eahfast- Table, forerunners of the admirable 
series resumed twenty-six years later in the Atlantic 
Monthly. Thus at twenty-three, OliverWendell Holmes 
had already entered the fields of literary effort in which 
he was to win such happy success, and had duly regis- 
tered his claim. 

In 1832, Holmes turned from law to medicine, and 

„ ^, . the next year went abroad to study his pro- 
Medlclne. . . ^t • -i • t^ «. i 

fession. He remamed m Ji-urope, for the most 

part in Paris, between two and three years, but re- 
ceived his degree from the Harvard Medical School in 
1836 ; at the same commencement he read before the 
Phi Beta Kappa society the poem entitled Poetry, a 
Metrical Essay. Dr. Holmes began the practice of 
medicine in Boston, but was called in 1839 to the pro- 
fessorship of anatomy in Dartmouth College. Resign- 
ing this position after a year's service, he returned 
to Boston in 1840, the year of his marriage to Miss 
Amelia Jackson. In 1847, he was appointed professor of 
anatomy and physiology at Harvard, a position which he 
filled actively for thirty-five years — a conscientious 
and successful instructor, characteristically enlivening 
his class-room with the brightness of his own high 
spirits. He wrote frequently upon professional topics 
and produced some noted medical essays. 

Two volumes of Poems had appeared previous to 
Literature 1850, but, with the exception of the composi- 
Again. tions already mentioned, nothing of especial 
distinction had been published. In 1857, however, the 
Atlantic Monthly began its brilliant course, and Dr. 
Holmes became forthwith a conspicuous figure in the 
literary life of America. It was, indeed, upon condition 
that Holmes should be engaged as the " first contrib- 
utor " that Lowell accepted the editorship of the new 



THE AUTOCRAT 271 

magazine. And accordingly the first number of the 
Atlantic — a name happily chosen by Dr. Holmes him- 
self — contained the first installment of that work 
which is most closely associated with its author's liter- 
ary fame, — the new Autocrat of the Breakfast- Table, 
Dr. Holmes was forty-eight years old when the spark- 
ling pages of the Autocrat began to appear, ^he Auto- 
Beginning whimsically with the sentence, " I <''*^- 
was just going to say, when I was interrupted," the 
speaker resumed the thread of genial comment which 
had been dropped a quarter of a century before. The 
scene of colloquy is at the breakfast-table in a typical 
Boston boarding-house. The " characters " who com- 
prise the company are lightly sketched : the landlady's 
sentimental daughter who is wont to receive the state- 
ments of the speaker with a rising " yes ?" the ingen- 
ious youth " B. F.," the divinity student, the professor, 
the " old gentleman who sits opposite," the little school- 
mistress, and the Autocrat himself — who presides so 
wisely and talks to such excellent effect. There is, too, a 
tiny romance, as a relish ; but the charm of the volume 
is in the conversation, which is simple and familiar, 
never commonplace. Shrewd observations, witty com- 
ment, happily turned epigrams, pithy phrases, bits of 
wisdom, passages of fantastic humor blend inimitably. 
Sometimes it is an odd comparison that provokes a 
smile — as when the difficulty of " winding-up " a poem 
suggests the analogy to a diffident caller who finds it 
hard to get out of a room after the visit is really over : — 

" They want to be off, and you want to have them off, but 
they don't know how to manage it. One would think they 
had been built in your parlor or study, and were waiting to be 
launched." 
Or this : — 

" Writing or printing is like shooting with a rifle ; you may 



272 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

hit your reader's mind, or miss it ; but talking is like playing 
at a mark with the pipe of an engine ; if it is within reach, and 
you have time enough, you can't help hitting it." 

Here, too, Holmes introduced some of his best-known 
verse. Contentment^ Parson TurelVs Legacy^ and the 
never-to-be-forgotten narrative of The Deacons Master- 
piece ; or., The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay^ are among 
the humorous poems presented in the Autocrat. It is 
not always understood that this last-mentioned classic 
is something of an allegory ; the famous vehicle of an- 
cient pattern which went to pieces all at once, — 

" First of November, 'Fifty-five " 



All at once, and nothing- first, — 

Just as bubbles do when they burst," — 

really typifies, in the narrator's mind, the old Calvin- 
istic theology against which he tilts in many a breezy 
phrase. It was David Holmes, the poet's grandfather, 
a captain in the French and Indian wars, who built the 
" One-Hoss Shay." In the pages of this same volume 
also, we find the poet's choicest lyrics : The Voiceless, 
The Living Temple., and The Chambered Nautilus. 

The success of the Autocrat was so great that a new 
series of essays under the title Tlie Professor at the 
Breakfast- Table was given to the Atlantic in 1858- 
1859, and published in book form in 1860. The Poet at 
the Breakfast-Table was completed in 1872. 

A volume of miscellaneous papers, contributions to 
the magazines, appeared in 1863 with the title Sound- 
ings from the Atlantic. With other papers it included 
the interesting narrative My Hunt after " The Cap- 
tain.,''' the author's account of his experiences during 
the search for his son who had been seriously wounded 
in one of the great battles of the war. 



HOLMES'S NOVELS 273 

In 1861, Dr. Holmes made his first experiment in 

fiction, with a romantic novel, Elsie Venner^ ^^ „ , 
' . — — 7" — — p« Tne Novels. 

which was followed by a second ni similar vein, 
Th e Guardian An ^el, in 1867. Nearly twenty years 
afterward, he wrotea third novel, A Mortal Antipathy ^ 
which was published in 1885. Of these the first two are^ 
the best. They are cleverly written and abound in the 
qualities so characteristic of the Autocrat ; but they are 
the physiological studies of a physician rather than the 
narratives of an ordinary novelist. Both deal with the 
subject of prenatal influence and the relation of inher- 
ited tendencies to the conduct of individuals and their 
moral responsibility. 

Dr. Holmes was the author of two notable biographies, 
a life of the historian Motley (1878), and a 
delightful memoir of Emerson (1884), whose 
philosophy had had a commanding influence in the in- 
tellectual development of Holmes himself. 

The life of Oliver Wendell Holmes was as placid 
and unclouded as the current of his own a Pleasant 
vivacious humor. His pleasant home was for ^^*®- 
many years in what was then the aristocratic residence 
district of Boston, on Beacon Street, overlooking the 
Common and almost in the shadow of the historic State 
House, which the Autocrat declares to be, in the 
minds of all true Bostonians, "the hub of the solar 
system." At the monthly dinners of the Saturday Club 
Holmes was the liveliest of that brilliant company. 
Indeed, " The Club " was his especial pride. Sadly he 
wrote to Lowell, in 1883 : — 

" I go to the Saturday Club quite regularly, but the com- 
pany is more of ghosts than of flesh and blood for me. I 
carry a stranger there now and then, introduce him to the 
members who happen to be there, and then say : There at 
that end used to sit Agassiz ; here at this end Longfellow ; 



274 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

Emerson used to be there, and Lowell often next him ; on such 
an occasion Hawthorne was with us, at another time Mot- 
ley, and Sumner, and smaller constellations, — nebulae if you 
will, but luminous more or less in the provincial firmament." 

His poem At the Saturday Club (1884) is a noble 
tribute to this galaxy of friends. There are few events in 
the poet's later life that call for record. In 1879, a com- 
plimentary breakfast in honor of the Autocrat's seven- 
tieth birthday was given him by the publishers of the 
Atlantic Monthly, Together with his daughter, he vis- 
ited Europe in the summer of 1886, — just fifty years 
after his student days in Paris. The major part of this 
later visit was in England, where he was heartily wel- 
comed and royally entertained. Honorary degrees were 
conferred upon him by the universities of Cambridge, 
Edinburgh, and Oxford. At Oxford, the ceremonial 
dignity of the occasion was unexpectedly enlivened by 
the inquiry of a vociferous undergraduate in the gallery, 
" Did he come in the One-Hoss Shay ? " at which, says 
Dr. Holmes, " there was a hearty laugh, joined in as 
heartily by myself." ^ The volume Our Hundred Days 
in Europe (1887) contains the interesting record of 
these experiences, and is as characteristic of the author 
in its modesty as in its lively humor. 

The reappearance of the essayist in 1890 with a new 
Over the volume, appropriately entitled Over the Tea- 
Teacups. cups, was hailed with delight by the readers 
who had sat with the Autocrat at breakfast a genera- 
tion before. The writer was eighty-one years old ; but 
the old-time shrewdness of expression, the homely di- 
rectness of speech, and the mirthful spirit, always tem- 
pered by charity and good wiU, had not been blunted 
by age. It is the Dictator, now, who presides at the 
table; there is an appreciative tinkling of the tea- 

1 Our Hundred Days in Europe, p. 88. 



276 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

spoons, as he discourses after the manner of past days. 

Who but Oliver Wendell Holmes would have linked 

the Salem witches to these new-fangled cars, and sent 

them scudding from end to end of Essex County over 

the inter-urban tracks ? The Broomstick Train belongs 

with his best humorous poems. 

It is inevitable that Dr. Holmes should live in the 

^ „ memory of readers as the Autocrat ; yet it was 

The Poet. -^ . _ ... ,. 

as a poet that he was ambitious oi recognition. 

His best humorous narratives. The Deacon'' s Master- 
piece^ Parson TurelVs Legacy^ How the Old Horse 
Won the Bet^ and The Broomstick Train^ are classics 
of their kind. As the poet of occasions — notably in 
the annual gatherings of his college class — Holmes is 
without a peer. In The Boys (1859) and Bill and Joe 
(1868) we have the class poet at his best. His patriotic 
verse is not to be forgotten. The note struck in the thrill- 
ing lines of Old Ironsides is heard in the war-time poems, 
Union and Liberty (1861) and Voyage of the Good 
Shi]) Union (1862) ; and again in Grandmother's Story 
of Bunker-Hill Battle (1875). The strong religious 
feeling of the poet finds expression in a number of hymns 
which have a cherished place in the hearts of believers. 
The Hymn of Trusty A Sun-Day Hymn (" Lord of 
all being! throned afar"), and the Parting Hymn 
(" Father of Mercies, Heavenly Friend ") are the 
most familiar. But after all, there are comparatively 
few of Holmes's serious compositions that reach the 
high standards of imaginative poetry ; and of these it 
is The Chambered Nautilus which holds the favored 
place among the best-known and best-loved American 
poems. The later volumes of his verse were published 
as follows: Songs in Many Keys (1861), Humorous 
Poems (1865), Songs of Many Seasons (1874), The 
Iron Gate (1880), and'^e/bre the Curfew (1888). 



THE LAST LEAF 277 

" And if I should live to be 
The last leaf upon the tree 
In the spring," — 

Holmes had written at twenty-two or twenty-three. Nei- 
ther Whittier nor Longfellow had been heard The Last 
from then. Poe's early poems, and Bryant's, ^®^- 
of course, were being read. Lowell had not entered 
college. The author of The Last Leaf saw the flight 
of all. He paid his tribute of respect to the patriarch 
of American poets, on Bryant's seventieth birthday 
(1864), and thirteen years later wrote in happy phrase 
his greeting For Whittier' s Seventieth Birthday. The 
Lron Gate marked his own arrival at the milepost of 
threescore and ten. It was for the Autocrat to pay lov- 
ing tribute to the memory of Longfellow and of Emer- 
son in well-known passages oi At the Saturday Club 
(1884), and then, in 1891, to lament the death of Lowell 
in the most tender of all these personal poems : — 

" Thou shouldst have sung the swan-song for the choir 
That filled our groves with music till the day 
Lit the last hill-top with its reddening fire, 
And evening listened for thy lingering lay." 

In the year following, Whittier died ; and of him the 
surviving poet sang : — 

** Best loved and saintliest of our singing train, 
Earth's noblest tributes to thy name belong ; 
A lifelong record closed without a stain, 
A blameless memory shrined in deathless song." 

Finally, two years later, October 7, 1894, Holmes, too, 
passed away — last of the 

" choir 
That filled our groves with music," 

in that long golden age of our national literature. 



278 THE NEW ENGLAND POETS 

It will not be necessary to specify regarding the selection 
of material for reading in either the verse or prose 
® * of Holmes. The Complete Works are published in 
fourteen volumes by Houghton Mifflin Company. The Cam- 
bridge Edition of the Poems is in one volume. The Life and 
Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes (2 vols.) by John T. Morse, 
Jr., is the standard biography. Mrs. Annie Fields, in Authors 
and Friends, T. W. Higginson, in Old Cambridge, and J. T. 
Trowbridge, in My Own Story (1904), have written of the 
Autocrat. The usual authorities on American literature may 
be read in general criticism 



CHAPTER VI 

THE GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE UNITED STATES 

I. The Historians. 
II. Orators and Statesmen. 

III. The Writers of Pennsylvania and Neiv York. 
IV. Novelists and Humorists. 
V. Poetry South and North. 

The period in our literary history which produced 
our most distinguished writers in prose and verse has 
not yet been fully described. Contemporary with these 
— the popular classics of our literature — there were 
many authors of lesser rank whose names belong in the 
record of our literary development. Some of these may 
be designated as the minor essayists, novelists, and poets 
of their generation, while some are our foremost repre- 
sentatives in other fields of literary effort as yet not 
touched upon. 

I. THE HISTORIANS. 
First in this enumeration are the historical writers — 
who constitute an important group among the authors 
of the century. The most brilliant of the number were 
Prescott, Motley, and Parkman. These three men were 
thoroughly representative of the traditional New Eng- 
land aristocracy of culture. They were all residents of 
Boston and graduates of Harvard College. A peculiar 
coincidence is found in the fact that both Prescott and 
Parkman suffered from the affliction of partial blind- 
ness, and that it was only in spite of extraordinary diffi- 



280 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

culty, by the exercise of consummate patience, that each 
was successful in his achievement. 

William Hickling Prescott was born in Salem ; but 
his parents removed to Boston when the boy 
Prescott, was twelve years of age, and placed their son in 
1796-1859. fjarvard College as a Sophomore, in 1811. 
It was in his junior year that the accident occurred which 
caused his loss of vision. A crust of bread thrown in the 
dining-hall by a fellow student struck his eyeball, and 
the sight of the left eye was destroyed. Intervals of 
complete blindness fell upon him, and the fear of losing 
his sight altogether never left him. 

Prescott's literary career was the result of a youthful 
gjg ambition. " I had early conceived," he says, 

Ambition. "a passion for historical writing, to which, 
perhaps, the reading of Gibbon's Autobiography con- 
tributed not a little. I proposed to make myself an his- 
torian in the best sense of the word." It was, however, 
after long deliberation that he settled upon a romantic 
period in Spanish history as his theme. Happily Pres- 
cott's means were ample ; the physical difficulties in his 
situation could hardly have been overcome otherwise. 

The story of this effort is heroical enough. When 
oculists assured him that the sight of the re- 
maining eye would be impaired if not de- 
stroyed by literary labor, he refused to retreat. Calmly 
he determined that even should sight fail, while hearing 
remained his literary ambition should be realized. Dic- 
tation he found impossible. He invented a mechanical 
device for guiding his pencil over the paper, and em- 
ployed readers to copy the manuscript he wished to con- 
sult. There were long interruptions in the work. We 
read in his journal entries like these : " The last fort- 
night I have not read or written, in all, five minutes." 
" If I could only have some use of my eyes ! " "I use 



THE HISTORIANS 281 

my eyes ten minutes at a time, for an hour a day. So 
I snail it along." 

For ten years, Prescott labored over his first volume, 
The History of Ferdinand and Isabella^ con- ^j^^ 
scientiously examining all accessible sources. AcMeve- 
The work, which was published in 1837, met ™®" ' 
with immediate success in this country and abroad. It 
was at once translated into five European languages, 
and its author was welcomed to the fellowship of the 
distinguished historians in England, Germany, and 
France. The Conquest of Mexico followed in 1843, The 
Conquest of Peru in 1847. A history of the reign of 
Philip II was undertaken, but only three of the six 
volumes proposed were finished, the third appearing 
in 1858. Prescott died in January of the following 
year. 

Although to a certain extent discredited as authori- 
tative upon historical fact, these works possess high 
literary value. They read like romance ; their style is 
pictorial and vivid. Prescott was the successor of Irving 
in the romantic field of Spanish history. Irving himself, 
indeed, had meditated a history of the conquest of 
Mexico, had collected material therefor in Spain, and 
was actually engaged upon the work ; but when he 
learned of Prescott's design, he quietly withdrew from 
the field and placed his material in the hands of the 
younger man. A few years later Prescott in turn per- 
formed a similar act of kindness in resigning to Motley 
an important part of the field naturally included in any 
account of the reign of Philip II. 

Dorchester, now a part of Boston, was the birthplace 
of John Lothrop Motley. After graduation j -^ ^^^_ 
from Harvard in 1831, he spent two years ley. 1814- 
as a student at the universities of Berlin and 
Gottingen, forming an intimate acquaintance with Bis- 



282 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

marck, his fellow student, the future chancellor of Ger- 
many. Motley's literary career began inauspiciously 
with the publication of an unsuccessful novel, Morton^ s 
Hope (1839) ; and this was followed ten years later by 
a colonial romance, Merry Mount (1849). 

After a brief period of residence in St. Petersburg 
Historical as a secretary of legation (1841-1842), he re- 
studies. turned to America and soon became interested 
in historical themes. A series of articles contributed 
to the North American Heview attracted general no- 
tice. In 1850, he became absorbed in his study of the 
Protestant struggle in Holland against the tyranny of 
Philip II. Motley had not, like Prescott, determined 
to be an historian and then searched for a theme. " My 
subject had taken me up, drawn me on, and absorbed 
me into itself," he wrote ; " it was necessary for me, it 
seemed, to write the book I had been thinking much of, 
even if it were destined to fall dead from the press, and 
I had no inclination or interest to write any other." * 
After receiving the hearty approval and encourage- 
ment of the older historian. Motley set himself at the 
task. 

Searching the archives of Europe and counting his 
The Dutch labor a joy, — so filled with enthusiasm was he 
Republic. Qygj, jjjg theme, — Motley completed the major 
portion of his work in 1856. The Rise of the Dutch 
Repuhlic was received, as Prescott's volumes had been, 
with universal applause. The History of the United 
Netherlands was published, the first two volumes in 
1860, the last two in 1868. The Life of John of Barne- 
veld (1874) was preliminary to the final work of the 
series, a history of the Thirty Years' War ; but this 
work was never written. 

^ Letter to Prescott's brother-in-law, written at Rome, in 1859, on 
hearing of Prescott's death. 



THE HISTORIANS 283 

Much of Motley's life was spent abroad. Besides his 
early service as secretary at St. Petersburg, Dipiomatio 
he held two important appointments. He was Service, 
minister to Austria during the Civil War period, and 
was appointed by President Grant minister to England 
in 1869. His recall, however, — for which no satisfac- 
tory reason has ever been given, — came in 1870. After 
the publication of John of Barneveld^ in 1874, a year 
marked also by domestic sorrow in the loss of his wife, 
Motley undertook no further literary work. He died in 
England in 1877, and was buried just outside London. 

Motley's works are characterized, like those of his 
predecessor, by the dramatic quality of the narrative 
and by eloquence of style. His intense sympathy with 
the oppressed and gallant Hollanders in their struggle 
for independence, and his hearty admiration for their 
great hero, William the Silent, permitted him to take 
no impartial ground. He writes as an acknowledged 
partisan, and in this respect his historical method is 
rather the method of the past than of the present. 

Francis Parkman, the youngest of the group, and 
thoroughly modern in his method of investi- p parkman, 
gation and presentation, was of Boston birth. 1823-1893. 
His father was a clergyman ; his grandfather, a pros- 
perous merchant, had established the family fortunes 
upon a basis which gave the family financial inde- 
pendence. A love of outdoor life was early bred in the 
boy, whose health was delicate and who was on that 
account allowed unusual freedom. He lived much in 
the open air and conducted youthful explorations in 
the surrounding woods. 

During his student days at Harvard, Parkman was 
seized with the desire to write the history of 
the French and Indian War, and he deter- 
mined to study the life of the Indian at first hand. 



284 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

Two years after graduation, he started from St. Louis, 
in 1846, upon the emigrant trail for the Dakota 
country. The summer that followed was replete with 
adventure, and productive of hardship from the effects 
of which the historian never recovered. But Parkman 
had lived among trappers and Indians ; he had tra- 
versed the plains, hunted the buffalo, dwelt for weeks in 
the lodges of a tribe of Sioux, and gained by rough ex- 
perience the knowledge that he sought. The narrative 
of his adventure is told in a fascinating volume, The 
California and Oregon Trail (1849). 

The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851) was the first of 

Parkman's historical volumes to appear, al- 
Franceln i i • i m i i . . 

the New though it describes the culmination rather 

World. than the opening of the epoch which he 
chronicles. It was fourteen years before his Pioneers 
of France in the New World (1865) really began the 
story of the struggle between France and England for the 
possession of America. The Jesuits in North America 
in the Seventeenth Century (1867), La Salle ; or the 
Discovery of the Great West (1869), The Old Regime 
(1874), Count Frontenac and Neio France under 
Louis X7F(1877), Montcalm and Wolfe (1884), and 
a supplementary volume, A Half Century of Conflict 
(1892), constitute the impressive series of his works. 
Parkman's style does not fall below that of Prescott in 
picturesqueness and realism. His accuracy may be 
safely assumed. Copyists were constantly at work for 
him over manuscript records of the past, and he him- 
self visited Europe five times to gather material. The 
localities he described were usually traversed in person. 
The difficulties which Parkman overcame in the ac- 
complishment of his purpose were strikingly 
similar to those which had confronted the 
historian of Ferdinand and Isabella. With vision sadly 



THE HISTORIANS 285 

impaired by some obscure trouble of the brain which 
affected also the action of the heart and tlie control of 
the limbs, he was terribly handicapped. His working 
time was frequently reduced to less than half an hour 
a day and there were long periods of utter helplessness. 
He was noted for his cheerful, sunny disposition. At 
his pleasant home on the shore of Jamaica Pond, he 
found recreation in the culture of roses, a pursuit of 
which he was extremely fond. He published a Book of 
Hoses in 1866 ; for two years he held the chair of horti- 
culture in Harvard. 

With this record of our more famous literary histo- 
rians there should be some account of those 
who have dealt most effectively with the theme of the 
of our national life. The most notable of these ^**^°°' 
writers is George Bancroft (1800-1891), another Mas- 
sachusetts scholar, who after graduation from Harvard 
studied at Gottingen and there received his doctor's de- 
gree in 1820. For a time he conducted a private school in 
Boston. The first volume of his History of the United 
States was published in 1834, the second in 1837. The 
author was then drawn into political life and served 
successively as collector of the port of Boston, Secre- 
tary of the Navy, minister to England, minister to 
Prussia, and then to Germany. The volumes of his his- 
tory appeared at intervals until the tenth, in 1874, 
brought the narrative down to the close of the Revolu- 
tion. Two later volumes (1882) were added to include 
the formation of the Constitution. In 1885, the histo- 
rian completed a revision of his work, which condensed 
the narrative within the limits of six volumes. Bancroft's 
History has always been recognized as a work of value, 
although it does not hold a place in literature with those 
of Parkman, Motley, and Prescott. Its author was a 
stanch Democrat, and this political bias is obvious in 



286 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

the work. Richard Hildreth (1807-1865), also a citi- 
zen of Massachusetts, and a Whig, produced a History 
of the United States (1849-1852) in isix Volumes ; it 
does not measure up to the standard of Bancroft's work. 
A scholarly History of New England (1858) by John 
Gorham Palfrey (1796-1881), and two noteworthy 
volumes dealing with the history of Louisiana (1851- 
1852) by Charles Etienne Gayarr^ (1805-1895) may 
well be mentioned here, aliliough local rather than 
national in scope. The youngest, and not the least im- 
portant among recent historical writers in this field is 
John Fiske (1842-1901), a brilliant and popular essay- 
ist upon philosophical and religious themes, whose first 
historical study. The Critical Period of American His- 
tory^ appeared in 1888. Jared Sparks (1789-1866) 
was a pioneer in the field of national biography. Sparks 
was a Unitarian clergyman, a professor of history at 
Harvard, and president of that college. He wrote the 
lives of Washington and Franklin and edited their writ- 
ings : the Washington^ in 1834-1838, the Franldin^ in 
1836-1840. He also edited a great Library of American 
Biography in twenty-five volumes which was completed 
in 1848. 

The student is referred to the William Hickling Prescottj 

by Rollo Ogden, and the Francis Parkman, by 
Authorities, ^t t^ o i • i • ^i, ^ • itr ^t ^ 

Henry D. bedgwick, m the American Men oj Let- 
ters Series. The Life of Motley, by his close friend, Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, is the best available biography at present. 



II. ORATORS AND STATESMEN. 

Among the men conspicuous in public life, who by 

reason of their argumentative skill and the power of 

their eloquence were the nation's leaders during the 

critical years of the century, the first to be mentioned is 



288 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

Daniel Webster. No more commanding personality has 

ever moved amonoj American statesman. His 
Daniel . r i i- -tur i • t t • 

Webster, portrait — alter those oi Washington and Lin- 

1782-1852. ^^Yyi — jg the most familiar of those in our 
national gallery. So impressive was he in presence, so 
leonine in feature, that his personal appearance struck 
every listener with awe. " That amorphous, crag-like 
face ; the dull black eyes under the precipice of brows, 
like dull anthracite furnaces needing only to be blown; 
the mastiff mouth, accurately closed " — this is the way 
in which Carlyle described his picture. He was an acute 
reasoner as well as an eloquent speaker. His famous ar- 
guments in the Dartmouth College case (1818) and in 
the White murder case at Salem (1830) are models of 
logcical structure. His orations at the two hundredth 
anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims (1820), at 
the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment (1825), and at the completion of the monument 
(1843) are noted examples of his eloquence.^ It was his 
self-appointed task to guard the integrity of the Con- 
stitution ; and it was this idea which inspired the best 
known of all his great addresses, the Heply to Uayne^ 
delivered in the United States Senate in 1830. It was 
his devotion to the Union and the preservation of na- 
tional unity which led to his support of compromise 
measures when the separation of South and North 
seemed imminent; and it was this which brought forth 
the speech on the seventh of March, 1850, — the speech 
which aroused the indignation of the anti-slavery party 
in New England and drew from Whittier that scathing 
utterance of disappointment and grief, the poem Icha- 
hod. Webster was born at Salisbury, New 
Hampshire. He studied at Phillips Academy, 
then recently founded at Exeter, and was graduated 
from Dartmouth College in 1801. He practiced law in 



ORATORS AND STATESMEN 289 

Portsmouth and served for a term as a r epr esentative 
of New Hampshire in Congress. In 1816, be removed 
to Boston, again went to Congress, and then entered 
the Senate in 1827. He was Secretary of State (1841- 
1843), and returned to the Senate in 1845. His home was 
at Marshfield, Massachusetts, at the time of his death. 
Representing the South in the arena of political de- 
bate were John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) and ^^^^^_ 
Henry Clay (1777-1852) ; while the names sentative 
of Rufus Choate (1799-1859) and Edward statesmen. 
Everett (1794-1865) are joined with that of Webster, 
as representative of the eloquence of New England. 
Foremost among the orators developed by anti-slavery 
sentiment in the North were Wendell Phillips (1811- 
1884) and Charles Sumner (1813-1887). The eloquent 
voice of Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was raised 
in the same cause. Nor should the names of Stephen 
A. Douglas (1813-1861) and Abraham Lincoln (1809- 
1865) be omitted from this list. In a dramatic series of 
public debates conducted in 1858 upon the prairies of 
Illinois, Lincoln and Douglas contended over the great 
issue of the time, — the institution of slavery and the 
momentous national problem to which it had given rise. 
While nominally a campaign for the Illinois senatorship, 
this remarkable discussion between the rival candidates 
— Douglas, the national leader of the Democratic party, 
and Lincoln, the candidate of the recently organized 
Republicans — aroused the interest of the entire coun- 
try. Mr. Douglas was elected to the Senate; but the 
contest made Lincoln, two years later, the logical can- 
didate of the Republican party for the presidency of 
the United States. It is not necessary here to discuss 

the erenius of Abraham Lincoln. His lowly 

• • 1 • • •^' J' 4.1 / Lincoln, 

origin, his primitive surroundings, the scanty 

education, the unique personality, the lofty spirit in the 



290 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

awkward, almost grotesque frame, are all parts of a 
familiar story. He was yet another in the group of so- 
called self-made men in whom genius has triumphed 
over circumstances. It should not be forgotten that the 
opponent of the highly trained, debonair Douglas had 
had his forensic training dui-ing twenty years of practice 
before the Illinois bar, and that he was regarded as the 
best jury lawyer in the state ; nor that the author of the 
speech at Gettysburg had steeped his mind in youth 
with the English of Shakespeare and the Bible — almost 
his only text-books. Academic traditions were unknown 
to Lincoln. His oratory was simple, keen, direct; his 
eloquence was unadorned by the arts of rhetoric; but 
his inaugural addresses and that delivered at the dedi- 
cation of the Gettysburg memorial betray the highest 
qualities of head and heart. They are among the 
choicest of our American classics. 

III. WRITERS OF NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA. 

For some time, our attention has been centred for 
the most part in the work of our New England writers ; 
but we must not think that the literary activity of this 
long period was confined to the immediate vicinity of 
Boston. The cities of Philadelphia and New York had 
each its coterie of literary workers. In the rapidly 
growing metropolis, the generation following that of 
Irving and his associates of the Knickerbocker group 
was not without its representatives of greater or less 
distinction, among whom at least two. Bayard Taylor 
and George William Curtis, deserve especial recogni- 
tion. Both were men of letters in the broadest sense, 
versatile in talent and giving expression to that talent 
in varied literary forms. 

Taylor was born in a Quaker household upon a Penn- 
sylvania farm, and as a child was conscious of two 



NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 291 

ambitions : to travel and to become a poet His liter- 
ary ambition was gratified prematurely by 
the publication of a volume of verse, Ximena^ Taylor, 
— afterward regretted, — in 1844. In the 1825-1878. 
same year, his twentieth, he sailed for England, having 
arranged with several editors to print the letters which 
he purposed to write while on his travels. For nearly two 
years, he tramped about over Europe enduring much 
hardship ; his letters were published in 1846, under the 
title of Views Afoot^ or Europe seen with the Knap- 
sack and Staff. An editorial connection with the New 
York Tribune followed ; and in 1849, Taylor was sent 
to California to report upon the fortunes of the gold- 
seekers. The next year his letters to the Tribune ap- 
peared in the volume Eldorado, A trip to the far East 
in 1851 resulted not only in more correspondence but 
also in a volume of verse. Poems of the Orient (1854), 
containing some of his best compositions, including the 
Bedouin Song. Bayard Taylor's fame as a traveler 
and an entertaining descriptive writer was extended by 
successive volumes recounting his experiences in Africa, 
in Spain, in India, China, and Japan, and in the north- 
ern countries of Europe. But he was ambitious to fill 
a higher place in literature. 

In 1863, he produced his first novel, Hannah Thur- 
ston., and the next year, his second, John Novels and 
Godfrey's Fortunes^ which is to some extent Poems, 
autobiographical. The Story of Kennett (1866), a 
semi-historical romance, is his most successful work 
of fiction. A long and elaborate narrative poem. The 
Picture of St. John (1866), was followed by The 
Masque of the Gods (1872), and Lars : a Pastoral 
of Norway (1873). Other volumes of verse were pub- 
lished in the latter years of his life, including The 
National Ode, written for the Centennial at Philadel- 



292 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

phia in 1876 ; but no one of Taylor's original efforts 
resulted in any enduring success. He wrote tirelessly 
and unceasingly, yet without that inspiration which 
gives immortality to the works of genius. His one 
achievement which will most certainly endure is the 
translation of Goethe's Faust^ the two parts of which 
were published in 1870 and 1871. This altogether ad- 
mirable version of the German poet's masterpiece ranks 
with Bryant's Homer and Longfellow's Dante^ if it does 
not surpass them in this delicately difficult field of 
poetical translation. 

But a portion of Taylor's literary labor is recorded 
here ; he was an indefatigable worker, and his health 
broke down under the steady strain. In 1878, he was 
appointed minister to Germany ; and it seemed pe- 
culiarly appropriate that the translator of Germany's 
great classic should be thus honored. His appointment 
was universally approved, for the poet was widely re- 
spected and, in the circle of his literary associates, 
greatly beloved. He was welcomed at Berlin, as Irving 
had been at the court of Spain ; but his diplomatic 
career was pathetically brief. Death came upon him sud- 
denly while sitting in his library at the German capital 
in December of the year of his appointment. 

The boyhood of George William Curtis was spent in 
G. w. Curtis, Providence, Rhode Island, but his family re- 
1824-1892. moved to New York when he was fifteen years 
old. He was still in his teens when he, with an older 
brother, entered the Brook Farm community at about 
the time that Hawthorne joined it. Three or four 
years of foreign travel, including a visit to Egypt and 
Syria, resulted in two volumes of description and im- 
pression : Nile Notes of a Howadjl (1851) and The 
Howadji in Syria (1852). Lotus Eating (1852) pre- 
sents another series of travel sketches. In The Potiphar 



NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 293 

Papers (1853) he satirized some tendencies in New 
York society. 

During the decade just preceding the Civil War, 
Curtis participated not only as a writer but 
also as a public speaker in the great debate 
on slavery, and laid the foundation of his later fame as 
one of the most forceful and graceful of American ora- 
tors — a reputation maintained to the end of his career. 

In 1856, Curtis published a charming little work of 
light and delicate sentiment entitled Prue in Fiction 
and /, a work which was exceedingly popu- ^* Essay, 
lar at the time, and which retains its popularity still. 
Trumps^ an experiment in novel writing, appeared in 
1861. The chief claim of Curtis to literary distinction, 
however, is as an essayist. For nearly fifty years he was 
associated editorially with Harper s Magazine^ and 
throughout that period contributed regularly those de- 
lightful papers — essays in miniature — which we asso- 
ciate with the department so sympathetically named " the 
Easy Chair." Something of the Addisonian flavor, with 
more of the spirit of Charles Lamb, is to be recognized 
in these vivacious contributions of comment, criticism, 
and reminiscence. Nevertheless, Curtis was as much a 
master of a style distinctly his own as was the author 
of the Autocrat. Three volumes of selections from 
these papers have been published, some of the essays 
appearing in an expanded form. Two volumes of Ora- 
tions and Addresses have also appeared, including the 
eulogies on Wendell Phillips and James Kussell Lowell. 

Josiah Gilbert Holland was a Massachusetts physician 
when he left his professional practice and, like 
Taylor and Curtis, entered journalism in New Iand,i8i9- 
York. Over the pen-name Timothy Titcomb, ^^^^' 
Dr. Holland, while editor of the Springfield (Mass.) 
Pepuhlican, wrote a series of familiar, essays, letters of 



294 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

wholesome counsel, which were received with favor in 
book form under the title Timothy TitcomVs Letters 
(1858). The publication of two volumes of verse, The 
Bay Path (1857) and Bitter-Sweet (1858), gave 
him a place among the "popular poets," which was re- 
inforced by the appearance of Kathrina^ a sentimental 
romance in metre, in 1867. Dr. Holland's claims to lit- 
erary distinction are not especially strong, but his novels, 
Miss Gilbert's Career (1860), Arthur Bonnicastle 
(1873), Sevenoahs (1875), and JVicholas Minturn 
(1877), were widely read. In 1870, he became the editor 
of the new Scrihner''s Magazine (which in 1881 changed 
its name to the Century^. 

Donald Grant Mitchell, a member of this same in- 
" Ik Mar- teresting group of genial essayists who long 
▼el," survived the rest, is the author of two delight- 

1822-1908. £^^ books which, like Curtis's Prue and /, still 
retain a popularity hardly diminished by the lapse of a 
generation. Reveries of a Bachelor was published in 
1850, Dream Life in 1851. The same charm of style 
and matter pervades My Farm of Edgewood (1863) 
and Wet Days at Edgewood (1864) ; nor is it lacking 
in the volumes of literary anecdote, English Lands^ 
Letters^ and Kings (1889) and American Lands and 
Letters (1897-1899). 

Charles Dudley Warner, whose delightful sketch- 
War- ^°^^' ^y >^^^^6^ ^^ « Garden (1870), 
ner,'i829- suggests comparison with the "Edgewood" 
^®°°' books, was born in Massachusetts. For many 

years he was a member of the famous literary coterie 
in Hartford, Connecticut, his professional duties — he 
was also a journalist — associating him with the New 
York group. His pleasant volume of Backlog Studies 
appeared in 1872. In collaboration with Samuel L. 
Clemens (" Mark Twain "), he wrote The Gilded Age 



NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 295 

(1873). Two volumes of travel sketches, My Winter 
on the Nile and In the Levant, were published in 1876. 
Being a Boy, a picturesque presentation of youth on 
a New England farm, belongs to the year following. 
Warner was the author of numerous volumes, includ- 
ing a Life of Washington Irving (1881) and two 
realistic novels, effective studies of New York society, 
A Little Journey in the World (1889) and The 
Golden House (1894). 

Richard Henry Stoddard, whose early years were years 
of poverty, was toiling in an iron foundry when mpjiarfl ^ 
he began his poetical career in New York. A Stoddard, 
friendship with Bayard Taylor led to the pub- 
lication of his first poems and to much literary work. 
From 1859 to 1870, Mr. Stoddard was employed in 
the New York custom-house, a position obtained with 
the friendly assistance of Hawthorne. From that time 
on, he was engaged in editorial work and held a high 
place among our minor poets. An autobiographic vol- 
ume of Recollections (1903) is not the least interest- 
ing of his prose works. The poet's wife, Elizabeth B. 
Stoddard (1823-1902), was also a writer of verse and 
the author of three noteworthy novels, The Morgesons 
(1862), Two Men (1865), and Temjyle House (1867). 

A Philadelphia writer, George Henry Boker (1823- 
1890), represents substantial attainment in the field of 
dramatic poetry. His successful tragedy, Francesca da 
Rimini (1856), is possibly the best of several which 
embody that romantic theme. Thomas Buchanan Read 
(1822-1872), like Boker a Pennsylvanian and a friend 
of Taylor and the Stoddards, was also an artist as well 
as poet. Of all his verse the battle lyric, Sheridan^ 
Ride (1865), is the poem inevitably associated with 
his name. 

By far the most interesting and important figure 



29G GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

among the New York writers of this generation is that 
Walt presented in the picturesque personality of 

Whitman, Walt Whitman. Strictly speaking, he was 
not so much a membei as one outside the 
literary circle just described. A man of rich vitality, 
lustily greeting life in all its phases, emphasizing, per- 
haps needlessly, the physical side of life. Whitman 
strode forth on his course, violating the conventionalities 
at every step. Not only in what he had to say as a poet 
was Whitman unconventional ; he was unconventional 
also in the manner of saying. He violated the estab- 
lished rules of poetical expression as boldly and as con- 
fidently as he disregarded the ordinary rule of silence 
concerning the topics which he discussed with such amaz- 
ing frankness. He was an innovator, a representative of 
new ideas. In the literary history of our country he 
stands unique. At once the target of criticism, he per- 
severed in the delivery of what he certainly believed a 
" message "; and now, half a century and more since the 
publication of his earliest volume, he still stands a some- 
what problematical personality. In the minds of many 
he appears a man of undoubted genius, Ossianic, ele- 
mental, impressive ; to some he is the teacher of new- 
&)und truths, the prophet and the poet of democracy. 
Walt Whitman was born on a farm on Long Island. 
His father was a descendant of pioneer New 
England stock; his mother's ancestry was 
Dutch. While Whitman was a child, his parents re- 
moved to Brooklyn, where his father practiced the trade 
of carpenter and builder. The boy was educated but 
scantily in the public schools, and entered a printer's 
office at thirteen. He was not continuously employed ; 
he found time to roam the moors and beaches of Long 
Island in close touch with nature and delighting in the 
sea ; he also found time to read much good literature, 



NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 297 

the Arabian Nights^ Scott, Shakespeare, Ossian, the 
hero-poetry of the Germans, and translations of the 
Greek dramatists and poets. There was a strange fit- 
ness in it — this abrupt, haphazard introduction to 
the masterpieces of literature. Dante he read in the 
shadows of a wood ; Homer he learned by heart in the 
shelter of great rocks, listening to the roar of the surf. 
At fifteen, he one day notices a ship under full sail, and 
has the desire to describe it like a poet. At eighteen, 
he teaches a country school. At twenty, he starts a weekly 
paper in his birthplace, then edits in leisurely fashion 
a daily paper in New York. He writes romances and 
verse of the conventional sort for a magazine, rides on 
the Broadway omnibuses and makes stanch friends with 
the drivers, is welcomed in the pilot-houses of the ferry- 
boats that ply on East River, frequents the Bowery, 
and is a conspicuous figure among the Bohemians who 
gather in Pfaff's restaurant. At twenty-eight, he is ed- 
itor of the Brooklyn Eagle^ and then suddenly takes to 
the " open road " to see the country and get near the peo- 
ple. This "leisurely journey and working expedition," 
as Whitman termed it, takes him through the Middle 
States and down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Or- 
leans, where for a time he works in a newspaper office. 
Retracing his steps in part, he visits the Great Lakes, 
sees Niagara, and crosses into Canada, finally returning 
through Central New York and down the Hudson. 

In 1855, appeared the first edition of Whitman's 
poems, entitled Leaves of Grass^ a title which Leaves of 
was used by the poet with each subsequent ^^^^^s. 
issue until the eighth edition, in 1892. This first volume 
was perhaps more widely talked about than widely read. 
To most of those who did read it, it was both mystify- 
ing and repellent. Not only did they find here a start- 
ling freedom of speech which shocked them and an 



298 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

apparent egotism that amazed, but they found also a 
form of expression that bade defiance to every principle 
of constructive art. 

" I celebrate myself, and sing myself," 

chanted the poet ; ^ 

" And what I assume you shall assume, 
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. 

" I loafe and invite my soul, 
I lean and loafe at ray ease observing a spear of summer grass. 

*' A child said What is the grass ? fetching it to me with full hands ; 
How could I answer the child ? I do not know what it is any more than 
he. 

" I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff 
woven. 

" Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, 
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt, 
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see 
and remark, and say Whose ? 

" Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the vegeta- 
tion. 

" And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves." 

This indeed seemed anarchy rather than art, and 
it is not surprising that a new generation of readers 
was born before the real significance of this strange 
verse began to be clear. Yet Emerson recognized the 
strength of originality in the " message " and wrote 
Wliitman a friendly and appreciative letter, which, with 
very poor taste, Walt included in the next edition of 
his poems. In time it became evident that the Song of 
Mysdf was to be interpreted as typical and universal 
rather than egotistic, and that the spirit of Walt Whit- 
man's poetry was democratic rather than personal. 
1 Song of Myself. 



NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 299 

The peculiar verse-form Whitman persistently main- 
tained. It represents his revolt from artifi- whitman's 
ciality. It was premeditated and, indeed, ac- ^®"®' 
quired with some effort. Of his compositions in this first 
volume, he said : " I had great trouble in leaving out 
the stock 'poetical* touches, but succeeded at last."^ 
Rhyme and metre were abolished — but not melody or 
rhythm. The device of the " catalogue " became his 
favorite method of suggestion, often picturesque, often 
musical, but often, too, unorganized and bewildering. 
In later years Whitman's poetry became less turgid 
and, at times, even symmetrical. The objectionable free- 
doms of the early work disappeared entirely and the 
poetical quality grew more tangible. 

The Civil War stirred Whitman mightily. The spirit 
of his verse during this period attains a dig- The Poet's 
nity and strength that is notable ; but this is ^" Record, 
not all. A brother who had enlisted was wounded ; and 
late in 1862, Walt went to Washington to nurse him. 
For the next two years the poet gave himself wholly 
to the hospitals. The service which he then performed, 
sometimes in the camps, sometimes on the field, can 
hardly be described. Stalwart, health-breathing, sym- 
pathetic, he assisted the surgeons, dressed the wounds, 
spoke tender encouragement to the suffering, scattered 
his simple little gifts among the sick, took the last 
message, and held the dying soldier in his arms.^ His 
own superb health finally broke. In Drum-Taps (1865) 
are included some of his finest compositions, notably 
the vivid descriptive poems Cavalry Crossing a Ford,, 
Bivouac on a Mountain-side^ An Army Corps on the 
March,, and By the Bivouac s Fitful Flame,, pictures 
intense in their realism. The death of Lincoln inspired 
two poems which command universal admiration : When 
1 Notes and Fragments. 2 Read The Wound-Dresser. 



300 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom' d2indi O Captain I 
My Captain ! This last poem is in rhymed stanzas, and 
shows AVhitman's poetical power at its best. 

The sea is the subject of many fine passages in these 
^j^g strange compositions. A Paiimanok Picture^ 

strength oi Patroling Barnegat^ With Husky-Haughty 
^' LijJS, O Sea, may be cited as examples, this last 
especially a marvel of descriptive power. To the poems of 
this interesting group, many as impressively suggestive 
could easily be added. The bird-songs in Out of the 
Cradle Endlessly Rocking and When Lilacs Last 
in the Hooryard Bloom'd are remarkable lyrics. To 
the Man-of' War- Bird is another poem easily to be ap- 
preciated. A picture dramatic in spirit and singularly 
vivid, is that descriptive of the old mariner's passing, 
in Old Salt Kossahone. 

" Far back, related on my mother's side, 
Old Salt Kossabone, I '11 tell you how he died ; 

(Had been a sailor all his life — was nearly 90 — lived with his mar- 
ried grandchild, Jenny ; 
House on a hill, with view of bay at hand, and distant cape, and 

stretch to open sea ;) 
The last of afternoons, the evening hours, for many a year his regular 

custom, 
In his great arm chair by the window seated, 
(Sometimes, indeed, through half the day,) 
Watching the coming, going of the vessels, he mutters to himself. — 

And now the close of all : 
One struggling outbound brig, one day, baffled for long — cross-tides 

and much wrong going. 
At last at nightfall strikes the breeze aright, her whole luck veering. 
And swiftly bending round the cape, the darkness proudly entering, 

cleaving, as he watches, 
* She 'a free — she 's on her destination" — these the last words — 

when Jenny came, he sat there dead, 
Dutch Kossabone, Old Salt, related on my mother's side, far back." 

More and more, as one learns to read Whitman, — 
and the reading should be aloud, — his strength grows 
upon the reader. The eccentricity, the uncouth forms, 



NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA 301 

the jargon of names and words, disturb liim less. In 
some degree he must respond to the pervading spirit 
of comradeship, of sympathy — boundless, indiscrimi- 
nate. All mankind is brother and sister ; everything in 
nature is wholesome and divine. 

"He says indifferently and alike How are you friend? to the President 
at his levee, 
And he says Good-day my brother, to Cudge that lives in the sugar-field, 
And both understand him and know that his speech is right." ^ 

This is certainly the spirit of democracy speaking. 
The question is. Is it poetry ? 

In 1873, a stroke of paralysis incapacitated the poet, 
and Whitman, who had held a clerkship in 
Washington, removed to Camden, New Jersey, 
where his later life was spent. Here he lived in compar- 
ative poverty, but with the companionship of a few in- 
timate friends, and with the knowledge of a growing 
body of disciples who cared more for their master's 
teaching than about his style of utterance. Tributes of 
recognition from Great Britain and the Continent grat- 
ified him. He began to be regarded by some enthusiasts 
as an oracle, and the poet seemed not averse to the role. 
SpeGimen Days and Collect^ autobiographical data in 
prose, was published in 1882. A new collection of verse, 
November Boughs^ appeared in 1888. The seventieth 
birthday of the poet was marked by greetings from all 
parts of the world. A new edition of Leaves of Grass 
was issued, together with the new poems collected under 
the title Sands at Seventy. A final volume, Good-hye 
my Fancy (1891), contained his last poems. Whitman 
died March 26, 1892. 

The influence of Whitman has not yet been notice- 
able in American verse ; but meanwhile the circle of ap- 
preciative readers has been constantly increasing, even 

1 Song of the Answerer. 



302 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

outside the so-called Whitman cult. An intelligent read- 
ing of Whitman is wholesome and invigorating. As to 
his place among poets, that is a matter yet to be deter- 
mined. 

Concerning Walt Whitman and his work there is a super- 
abundance of material. The best recent biography, 
with a satisfactory criticism of his verse, is the 
Life of Walt Whitman, by Bliss Perry. See also Walt 
Whitman by George R. Carpenter, in the English Men of 
Letters Series. A good short sketch of the poet is the volume 
in the Beacon Biographies, by I. H, Piatt. The study of 
Whitman in Trent's American Literature is impartial and 
admirable. The volume of Selections from the Prose and 
Poetry of Walt Whitman, edited by O. L. Triggs, and Se- 
lected Poems hy Walt Whitman, edited by Arthur Stedman 
(in Fiction, Fact, and Fancy Series), may prove more profit- 
able as an introduction to the poet than an edition of his 
complete works. 

IV. NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS. 

Writers of fiction were numerous during the first half 
Southern of the century, in the South as well as in the 
Romancers. North. While Cooper and Poe were the only 
ones who attained eminence in this field, there was no 
lack of story-telling, and in several instances a wide 
local reputation was built upon the success of a single 
book. The influence of Cooper is strongly felt in the 
work of three Southern novelists, Kennedy, Bird, and 
Simms, of whom the last-named deserves a wider fame. 
John P. Kennedy (1795-1870), a native of Baltimore 
and a successful lawyer who represented his state in 
Congress and was also Secretary of the Navy under 
President Fillmore, is chiefly remembered as the author 
of Horse-Shoe Robinson (1835), his best work ; a cap- 
ital romance of the Revolution in the South. The 
Indian novel,- A^ic^ of the Woods (1837), constitutes the 



NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS 303 

principal claim of Dr. Robert M. Bird (1803-1854) to 
recognition in this group. He was, however, the author 
of several romances dealing with the Spanish Conquest 
of Mexico, and also of two or three plays, among which 
The Gladiator holds the principal place. 

William Gilmore Simms is, next to Poe, the most re- 
presentative and most talented among the writ- _ „ 
ers of the South previous to the Civil War. simms, 
He was born in Charleston, South Carolina. 
As his family belonged to the poorer class, he received 
little in the way of formal education, but exhibited 
unusual energy in literary pursuits. At twenty-three, 
Simms had already published three volumes of youthful 
verse. His first novel, Martin Faher (1833), reflects 
the influence of Charles Brockden Browne ; but (jruy 
Mivers (1834) was the first of a series of border ro- 
mances in which the influence of Cooper is plainly seen. 
In 1835, Simms published The Partisan^ one of his best 
stories, a vivid and entertaining narrative of the parti- 
san warfare conducted in the South during the Revolu- 
tionary struggle. \n Mellichampe (1836), TheKinsmen 
(1841), and Katharine Walton (1851), he continued 
the story of the characters thus introduced. His histori- 
cal tales were as numerous as those of Cooper, and con- 
tinued to appear down to the period of the Civil War. 
Although defective in technical construction and by no 
means comparable to Cooper's best novels, they never- 
theless constitute a remarkable collection and are not 
unworthy the attention of the modern reader. A volu- 
minous writer, Simms was the author of biographies, 
plays, and poems, in addition to the long list of ro- 
mances, only the most important of which have been 
named. 

A follower of Simms was John Esten Cooke (1830- 
1886), whose novels. The Virginia Comedians (1854), 



304 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

and Fairfax (1868), are representative of this author's 
work in the same historical field. 

Rev. William Ware (1797-1852), a Massachusetts 
Fiction In clergyman, was the author of three sober nar- 
the North, ratives dealing with the persecution of the. 
Christians at Rome. To some extent Zenohia (1837), 
Aurellan (1838), and Julian (1841) still maintain 
their place among popular religious romances. Rev. 
Sylvester Judd (1813-1853) is more dimly remem- 
bered as the author of a transcendental romance, Mar- 
garet (1845), which was admired by Lowell for its de- 
scription of humble rural life. The fiction of adventure 
is represented at its best in the novels of Herman Mel- 
ville (1819-1891), a native of New York city. His own 
experiences on land and sea supplied the material of 
his most successful books, Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), 
and MohyDick, or the White Whale (1851). Melville 
was, moreover, master of a brilliant style which gave 
his writings a distinction still retained. The tales of 
Catherine M. Sedgwick (1789-1867) employed an his- 
torical background ; of these Hope Leslie^ or Early 
Times in Massachusetts (1827), and The Linicoods^ or 
Sixty Years Since in America (1835), were especially 
admired. Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), whose phi- 
lanthropic spirit brought her prominently into the anti- 
slavery agitation, began her modest literary career with 
the publication of two historical novels: Hohomoh 
(1824), which depicted life in the colony at Salem, and 
The Rebels (1825), the scene of which is laid in Boston 
just previous to the Revolution. 

One of the famous novels of its time — and still reck- 
Reaiistic oned a classic by lovers of sentimental fic- 
Fiction. tion — was that tearful work The Wide, Wide 
World (1850), written by Susan Warner (1819-1885). 
Qiieechy followed in 1852. The Lamplighter (1854), 



NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS 305 

by Maria S. Cummins, was another example of the sen- 
timental novel, which enjoyed widespread popularity. 
Butwhile these works of fiction had a large contemporary 
fame, they were altogether eclipsed by the production of 
another New England woman — the most widely read 
and best known of all American novels. Uncle Tom^s 
Cabin^ which was published in 1852. 

Harriet Beecher, one year older than her famous bro- 
ther, Henry Ward, was the daughter of Rev. g^^jg^ « 
Lyman Beecher, who was settled in the little stowe, 
town of Litchfield, Connecticut, when Harriet ^^^^-lase. 
was born. She was a precocious child intellectually and 
emotionally. A part of her early life was spent in Cin- 
cinnati, whither, in 1832, her father had been called to 
become the president of a theological seminary. Here 
Harriet Beecher was married to Dr. Stowe in 1836. 
During this period of residence in the Ohio city, she 
visited friends in Kentucky and gained her knowledge 
of slavery, as she observed the institution there. In 1850, 
the Stowes removed to Brunswick, Maine, Dr. Stowe 
having been called to a professorship in Bowdoin Col- 
lege ; and it was here that she wrote her novel. Uncle 
Tonics Cabin appeared first as a serial in the National 
Era^ the anti-slavery organ at Washington, with which 
Whittier was at one time associated. The history of this 
book is unique in American literature. It has been 
translated into more than forty languages. It was dram- 
atized immediately, and still makes its melodramatic 
appeal from the stage — to a larger audience than any 
other single play. Although severely handled by modern 
critics with reference both to its portrayal of slavery as 
an institution and to its artistic defects, the strong pa- 
thos of the novel and its humanitarian spirit appear to 
insure its literary immortality. It has been well said of 
Uncle TowiS Cabin that " a book that stirs the world 



306 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

and is instrumental in bringing on a civil war and free- 
ing an enslaved race may well elicit the admiration 
of a more sophisticated generation."^ Mrs. Stowe's 
next novel, Dred^ a Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp 
(1856), was also a story about slavery. In 1858, she 
began in the Atlantic Monthly a realistic story of colo- 
nial life, The Minister's Wooing. The Pearl of Orrs 
Island appeared in 1862. The novel, Agnes of Sor- 
rento, published the same year, was the fruit of a 
European trip. For many readers, Mrs. Stowe's most 
attractive work appears in Oldtown Folks (1869), a 
realistic study of the quaint and wholesome New Eng- 
land character as she had known it intimately in child- 
hood as well as in later life. After 1863, the Stowes 
lived in Hartford. The husband died in 1886 ; Mrs. 
Stowe survived, an invalid, until 1896. 

The quality of humor has been already noted in 
American connection with the work of more than one 
Humor. American writer. The homely wit of Frank- 
lin gives a distinct coloring to his pages. Irving, not 
only in the robust mirthfulness of the Knicherbocker 
History, but also in the delightful pages of his sev- 
eral sketch-books, appears as a humorist of genial type. 
Lowell and Holmes have conspicuous places among the 
exponents of American humor ; and there are scores of 
minor writers whose gifts in this field have not been 
concealed. 

The political humorist has long been in evidence. 
The Political " Major Jack Downing " was the character 
Humorists, assumed in the days of President Jackson by 
a young journalist of Portland, Maine, a graduate of 
Bowdoin College, Seba Smith (1792-1868). The war 
with Mexico later inspired his pen. The Civil War 
brought out several journalistic humorists, among whom 
^ See Trent's American Literature, p. 504. 



NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS 307 

one, Kobert Henry Newell (1836-1901), of New York, 
wrote under the name of " Orpheus C. Kerr" ; and an- 
other, David Ross Locke (1833-1888), an Ohio editor, 
figured as " Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby." His book 
Swingin^ round the Cirkle (1866) was immensely pop- 
ular throughout the North. 

Representative of a broader field and not connected 
with politics are the comic characters " Widow pwiosopiiy 
Bedott," the creation of Mrs. Frances Whitcher "^^ H'™°'- 
(1812-1852), and the oft-quoted " Mrs. Partington " of 
Benjamin P. Shillaber (1814-1890), whose Life and 
Sayings of Mrs, Partington appeared in 1854. Henry 
W. Shaw (1818-1885), "Josh Billings," and Charles 
F. Browne (1834-1867), "Artemus Ward," are the real 
leaders in this group of humorous professionals. Both 
appeared as entertainers on the public platform, as well 
as in the columns of the newspapers. In 1866, Browne 
visited England, where his lecture on The Mormons 
created as much merriment as it had occasioned in the 
United States. His complete writings were published 
in 1875. Shaw's humorous philosophy was embodied 
chiefly in Josh Billings'* Farmery's Allminax, his absurd 
system of spelling contributing to the fun. 

Of those who have written humorously in verse, we 
may mention John Godfrey Saxe (1816- 
1887), whose humor mingling with sentiment 
is inferior to that of Thomas Hood, which it otherwise 
resembles, and Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903), 
of Philadelphia, author of the Hans Breitmann Bal- 
lads^ published complete in 1871. 

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born near Hannibal, 
Missouri, a distinctly western product, has ..jur j. 
come to hold the foremost place among Amer- Twain," 
lean humorists, although his distinction as a *'°™^®^^- 
man of letters is by no means limited to this single field. 



308 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

His humor is broad and virile, often edged with satire. 
Keverence for tradition is not one of his traits; the 
role of the iconoclast is one which he assumes with vigor 
and with zest. After an apprenticeship in a newspaper 
office, beginning at twelve years of age, and a brief ca- 
reer as pilot on the Mississippi packets (it was the call 
of the leadsman as he reported his soundings which 
supplied the peculiar pen-name), Mr. Clemens went to 
Nevada, where for a time he filled the post of territorial 
secretary. Later, in San Francisco, he again took up 
newspaper work, and here made his first literary success 
with the story of The Celebrated Jumping Frog^ which, 
at the suggestion of Bret Harte, he published in The 
Californian, a short-lived literary journal, in 1867. His 
first book, Innocents Abroad (1869), was the humorous 
record of a trip through Europe ; it brought immediate 
fame. Roughing It (1872) was based upon early ex- 
periences in the far West. The Gilded Age (1873), 
written in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner, 
introduced the noteworthy character " Col. Sellers," 
with his sanguine temperament and his famous declara- 
tion '* There 's millions in it ! " Tom Sawyer appeared 
in 1876, — a remarkable study of boy character, and re- 
miniscent of the author's youth. Another European trip 
resulted in A Tramp Abroad (1880). Mr. Clemens 
then entered a province new to him and surprised his 
readers with The Prince and the Pavper (1882), a 
charmingly written romance for children. Life on the 
Mississippi (1883) was followed by another strong 
story of boy-life amid rude surroundings. Huckleberry 
Finn (1884). The broad burlesque, A Connecticut 
Yankee in King Arthur's Courts appeared in 1889. A 
serious novel, Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and a his- 
torical romance seriously conceived, Joanof Arc (1896), 
have increased the literary reputation of the author. 



NOVELISTS AND HUMORISTS 309 

Numerous short stories, not altogether in the humorous 
vein, have continued to appear along with occasional 
volumes of the type represented in the early works. 
Chapters of a leisurely Autobiography are now appear- 
ing characteristically enlivened with the old-time humor, 
mellowed but unimpaired by age. 

The early work of Francis Bret Harte, in verse at 
least, was largely humorous. His first success Bret Harte, 
was as a humorist. Born in Albany, New 1839-1902. 
York, Harte's school training came to an end with his 
father's death in 1854, and the fifteen-year-old boy, who 
had already become a lover of Charles Dickens, and had 
also published in a New York newspaper some immature 
verse of his own, went with his mother to the Pacific 
coast. The first few years of his life in California 
brought him little except experience and intimate ac- 
quaintance with the picturesque characters that later 
figured to such advantage in his poems and tales. He 
was a school teacher at Sonora, in Calaveras County ; he 
tried placer mining in the gold-fields ; he was a messen- 
ger in the employ of the Wells-Fargo Express Company ; 
finally he became a compositor on a San Francisco paper, 
and began to write sketches for the Golden Era. In 
1861, while holding an appointment as secretary to the 
superintendent of the San Francisco Mint, Harte be- 
came the editor of the newly founded Overland Monthly ; 
and in the second number of that publication appeared 
his first noteworthy tale. The Luck of Roariiig Camp. 
Then followed The Outcasts of Poker Flat^ Tennes- 
see's Partner., and the other narratives which contain 
his inimitable portraitures of the primitive western 
civilization. A little later, he wrote the first and best 
of his dialect poems, Plain Language from Truthful 
James., or, as it was afterwards entitled, The Heathen 
Chinee. 



310 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

In 1870, Bret Harte left California. The popularity 
of his stories and poems was unbounded, especially 
throughout the East, and in England. His subsequent 
career was a disappointment. Such literary work as he 
undertook was desultory and either an imitation of his 
earlier efforts, or something inferior. He was given, in 
1878, a minor German consulate and two years later 
was transferred to Glasgow. Of this office he was re- 
lieved in 1885. He continued to live in England and 
published numerous volumes which did not increase his 
fame. He died at the home of friends in Surrey, in 1902. 

V. POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH. 

Among the minor poets whose songs have found recog- 
Minor nition and whose names deserve some record 

Verse. j^ t}jg history of our literature, the following 

at least should be included. William W. Story (1819- 
1895), the friend of Hawthorne and Lowell, was born 
in Salem. He resided for the larger part of his life in 
Italy, and attained considerable rank as a sculptor. He 
was a poet of more than ordinary gifts, and an author 
of several volumes, prose as well as verse, including the 
well-known Roba di Roma^ or Walks and Talks about 
Home (1862). Thomas William Parsons (1819-1892), 
born at Boston, is more widely known as a translator 
of Dante than as an original poet, although his lines 
On a Bust of Dante are greatly admired by scholars. 
Dr. Parsons, who was a dental surgeon, practiced his 
profession abroad, and it was during his residence in 
Italy that his interest in the Italian poet was aroused. 
His translation ranks with the best American render- 
ings of the Commedia, although it is not complete. His 
version of the Inferno appeared in 1867; portions of" 
the Purgatorio and Paradiso were published in 1893. 
Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813-1892), an artist living 



POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 311 

in Cambridge, a member of the transcendental group, 
published a translation of Virgil's j^ne,id in 1872. The 
modest verse of Alice and Phcebe Gary (Alice, 1820- 
1871 ; Phoebe, 1824-1871), serious in sentiment, often 
religious, was widely read. The Gary sisters were na- 
tives of Ohio, but in 1852 removed to New York. Mrs. 
Julia Ward Howe (1819- ), a well-known lecturer 
and leader in various reform movements, has written sev- 
eral volumes of verse, but will be remembered chiefly as 
the author of a great war-poem. The Battle Hymn of 
the Reimhlic, Lucy Larcom (1826-1893), whose early 
songs, written while she was a worker in the mills at 
Lowell, attracted the notice of Whittier, and Mrs. Gelia 
Laighton Thaxter (1836-1894), daughter of the light- 
house-keeper on the Isles of Shoals, were, like Mrs. 
Howe^ typical New England women who found their 
inspiration in subjects and activities close at hand. The 
names of Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford (1835- ) 
and Mrs. Louise Ghandler Moulton (1835-1908) should 
be included in this list of our minor poets of recognized 
worth. A larger distinction attends the literary career 
of Mrs. Helen Fiske Jackson (1831-1885), before her 
second marriage Helen Hunt, whose signature " H. H." 
was familiar to the readers of a generation ago. Mrs. 
Jackson was born at Amherst, Massachusetts. Her 
poems, issued in 1870, placed her at the head of the 
women writers of verse in America. The last ten years 
of Mrs. Jackson's life were spent in Colorado and Gal- 
ifornia. Her interest in the Indians and her intense 
sympathy with them in their wrongs led to the publica- 
tion of her Century of Dishonor (1881), a book which 
bore fruit in the official appointment of Mrs. Jackson 
as special examiner to the mission Indians in California ; 
and eventually in her striking novel, JRamona (1884). 
A group of rather remarkable short stories by " Saxe 



312 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

Holm," published in two series (1873, 1878), although 
unacknowledged, are usually attributed to Helen Hunt 
Jackson. The poems of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) 
are remarkable productions, which have commanded 
recognition by our highest literary critics. Miss Dickin- 
son was a townswoman of Helen Fiske, and her life was 
spent at Amherst largely in seclusion. Only a few inti- 
mate friends were aware of her poetical gift, and her 
verses were not published until 1890, four years after her 
death. John Hay (1838-1905), distinguished as a diplo- 
matist and statesman, was born in Indiana. He began 
the practice of law in Illinois in 1861, and became the 
private secretary of President Lincoln. In collaboration 
with John G. Nicolay he afterward wrote the authori- 
tative Ah'aham Lincoln: A History (1886-1890); 
his literary fame, however, is based upon a slender vol- 
ume of Pike Connty Ballads (1871), which, strong in 
local color, portray the rough virtues of the Mississippi 
Valley in the early days. There is a finer quality of 
elegance and grace — with less originality — in the later 
verse of his Castilian Days (1871) and Poems (1890). 
A strong and successful novel, The Breadwinners 
(1884), attributed to John Hay, was never publicly 
acknowledged by him. Edward Rowland Sill (1841- 
1887), a native of New England, although compelled 
by ill health to seek a residence in California, exhibited 
a notable talent in his poetry which shows rich gifts of 
spiritual insight and power. John Boyle O'Keilly (1844- 
1890), an Irish patriot with a romantic history, a gifted 
orator and an influential editor in Boston, was a lyric 
poet of more than ordinary talent. He was the author 
of many excellent songs and ballads. J. Maurice Thomp- 
son (1844-1901), well known as a literary critic and 
as the author of several popular romances, also deserves 
recognition as a lyric poet. A disciple of Theocritus, 



POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 313 

he was an entliusiast for nature, a lover of outdoor 
life and sports. He revived the interest in archery, 
and sang of birds and woods. Thompson was born in 
Indiana, but lived as a boy in Kentucky and Georgia. 
He served in the Confederate army during the war, and 
at its close returned to his native state. 

Since the death of Poe, the South has not been re- 
presented by any poet of equal rank, yet it poets of the 
has been by no means without its representa- so^t^- 
lives in verse, of whom one or two may be said to have at- 
tained national prominence. William G. Simms (1806- 
1870), whose contributions to American fiction have 
been described, was the author of several volumes of 
verse which enjoyed local popularity but which does 
not rise above mediocrity. Albert Pike (1809-1891), 
born in Boston, a settler in Arkansas, a soldier in the 
Confederate army, published in 1831 his ambitious 
Hymns to the Gods. Better known to-day is his charm- 
ing ode To the Moching-Bird; and best known of all 
his verse is the stirring war-song Dixie, In this con- 
nection mention should be made of Theodore O'Hara 
(1820-1867) of Kentucky, who, in 1847, wrote The 
Bivouac of the Dead. This martial elegy, upon which 
the reputation of its author rests, commemorates the 
death of Kentuckians who fell at the battle of Buena 
Vista. Another famous song of the South in war- 
time, Maryland^ my Maryland., was the composition of 
James Ryder Randall (1839-1908), a native of Bal- 
timore. Three Southern poets belonging to the gener- 
ation which followed Poe have risen to more than minor 
rank. These are Henry Timrod, Paul H. Hayne, and 
Sidney Lanier. There is a pathetic resemblance in the 
circumstances and experiences of all. Each suffered 
personally the distressing effects of the war which in- 
terrupted the literary achievement and shortened the 



314 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

life of each. Both Timrod and Lanier died under 
forty; while Hayne, although surviving to the age of 
fifty-five, was an invalid for many years before his 
death. 

The poet Timrod was born at Charleston, South 
Henry Tim- Carolina. He studied at the University of 
rod, 1827- Georgia, and began the reading of law. He had 
already won recognition as a poet and had 
formed a lifelong friendship with young Hayne, who was 
also a native of Charleston. Together the poet-friends 
entered on their literary career, and under the encourage- 
ment of William G. Simms they were associated in an 
editorial venture which proved short-lived. Timrod's 
poems, which filled but a slender volume, were published 
at Boston in 1860, his most elaborate composition being 
A Vision ofPoesie^ the statement of his poetical creed. 
Then came the war. Timrod's health was too delicate 
to permit of military service, but he went upon the field 
as correspondent for a Charleston paper. But this ex- 
perience proved too strenuous, and in 1864 he became 
associate-editor of the South Carolinian^ at Columbia, 
the state capital. When that city was destroyed at the 
entrance of Sherman's army, his home was burned, and 
everything that he possessed was lost. His poverty was 
so great that his family was on the verge of starvation. 
The last three years of the poet's life were years of acute 
suffering. A visit to the rustic home of his friend Hayne 
failed to benefit him ; his health rapidly declined, and he 
died at thirty-eight. A complete edition of Timrod's 
poems was edited by his brother poet in 1873. Much of 
Timrod's verse is nature poetry, serious in spirit like 
that of Wordsworth, elevated and musical. His best- 
known poem. The Cotton Boll, is no less notable for its 
patriotic fervor than for its fine description of the snowy 
cotton-fields of the South. His highest achievement is 



POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 315 

seen in the beautiful ode At Magnolia Cevieteiy 
(1867), which closes with these lines: — 

" Stoop, angels, hither from the skies ! 
There is no holier spot of ground 
Than where defeated valor lies, 
By mourning' beauty crowned." 

Hayne was reared in the cultured and wealthy Charles- 
ton home of his uncle, Eobert Y. Hayne, Web- „ , „ „ 

. -1 XT . 1 r^ ^^^^ Hamll- 

ster s great opponent m the United btates ton Hayne, 

Senate. Previous to the war, he had filled two ^®30-i886. 
or three editorial positions, including the editorship of 
MusselVs Magazine^ the publication promoted by the 
novelist William Gilmore Simms ; and, since the publi- 
cation of his early poems in 1855, had been regarded as 
the representative poet of the South. Hayne served with 
the rank of colonel in the Confederate army. In the 
bombardment of Charleston he lost all his possessions, 
and found himself at the close of the war in the deepest 
poverty and a confirmed invalid. He then went to the 
barren pine-lands of Georgia, built for himself and his 
family a rude cottage on a piece of land known as Copse 
Hill ; and this was the poet's home until his death. He 
published a volume, Legends and Lyrics^ in 1872, and 
The Mountain of the Lovers and Other Poems^ in 1875. 
A complete edition of his Poems appeared in 1882. 
Hayne was essentially a poet of romance, and succeeded 
admirably in his longer narrative poems and his ballads. 
Yet he, too, wrote, like a true nature-lover, of the pines, 
and the mockingbirds, and the warmth of the South- 
land. In spite of loneliness and poverty, his poems con- 
tain none of the sadness or melancholy so characteristic 
of Poe ; they were tender and cheerful to the last. 

More successful than any other Southern poet except 
Poe in the impression of his genius on readers of verse, 
Sidney Lanier is gradually coming to be recognized as 



316 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

entitled to a place with our chief American poets. 
The story of his life is as pathetic as those 
Lanier, just rehearsed, for his life, too, was colored by 
^^ ~ ' the shadows of ill-health and straitened cir- 
cumstances which followed in the wake of war. Born 
in Macon, Georgia, February 3, 1842, Lanier had just 
completed his college course in Oglethorpe when the war 
broke. He flung himself into the struggle with the same 
ardor that sent Timrod and Hayne to the support of the 
Southern cause. Sidney and his brother Clifford — two 
slender, gray-eyed youths, inseparable in their service 
of danger and hardship — extracted all the romance to 
be derived from their experience. In 1863, they were 
on scout duty along the James ; Lanier wrote later with 
enthusiasm of this period in their army life : — 

" We had a flute and a guitar, good horses, a beautiful 
country, splendid residences inhabited by friends who loved 
us, and plenty of hair-breadth escapes from the roving bands 
of Federals. Cliff and I never cease to talk of the beautiful 
women, the serenades, the moonlight dashes on the beach of 
fair Burwell's Bay, and the spirited brushes of our little force 
with the enemy." 

In 1864, the brothers were transferred to Wilmington 
and placed as signal officers upon the blockade-runners 
Here Sidney Lanier was captured and for five months 
was confined in the Federal prison at Camp Lookout; 
it well-nigh became his tomb. With emaciated frame 
and shattered physique the young soldier finally went 
home, like so many other youthful veterans, south and 
north, to fight for life in the coming years. With La- 
nier, the struggle was for both life and livelihood. He 
was twenty-three years old, unsettled as to his future, 
and under the gloom of those "raven days" of the deso- 
lated and demoralized South. 

" Our hearths are gone out and our hearts are broken," 



POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 317 

he sang plaintively ; yet he turned the plaint into a song 
of cheer; and he still found the romance. In 1867, he 
was married to Miss Mary Day, of Macon, and the 
poems of his wooing-time and of his wedded life are as 
graceful and tender as the lyrics Lowell sang to Maria 
White. 

For five years Lanier tried to follow the law, and 
then, in 1873, gave himself to art. He went itj^q 
to Baltimore alone, except for his flute. La- Musician, 
nier's flute is as famous as Lanier ; it is a part of his per- 
sonality. Its mellow notes had cheered the soldier and 
his comrades by camp-fire and in prison; it had been 
softly played in many a surreptitious serenade. And it 
was widely known ; for Lanier was a remarkable musi- 
cian, and was called by many the finest flute-player in 
America if not in the world. Lanier's musical genius 
must be taken in account by the student of his verse. 
So far as he could trace his ancestry, it disclosed this 
talent as a family possession. In the Kestoration period, 
there were five Laniers in England who were musicians ; 
in Charles I's time, Nicholas Lanier, who was painted 
by Van Dyck, wrote music for the masques of Jonson 
and the lyrics of Herrick; the father of this Nicholas 
was a musician in the household of Queen Elizabeth. 
Thus Sidney Lanier came naturally by his gift. In Bal- 
timore, his flute secured him a position in the Peabody 
Orchestra, and furnished the means of living for several 
years. Theodore Thomas is said to have been on the 
point of making the artist first flute-player in his or- 
chestra, when Lanier's health finally failed and he was 
compelled to give up the struggle. 

But Sidney Lanier found also in Baltimore the first 
opportunity to gratify what had been the am- Literature 
bition of the years since his college course, — ^^ Poetry, 
the opportunity to study literature and the scientific 



318 GENERAL LITERAKY DEVELOPMENT 

principles of verse. The unfulfilled dream of his youth 
had been a systematic course in the German universities; 
this was not to be realized, but in the richly equipped 
Peabody Library he found his university. Never was 
there a more assiduous student. Especially did he de- 
vote himself to the field of Old English poetry. Soon 
there were invitations to lecture, and in the city he 
came to have an established reputation as a fascinating 
lecturer on English literature. In 1875, he first won re- 
cognition as a poet of more than ordinary power by the 
publication of Corn^ in Lippincott'' s Magazine; four 
months later his remarkable poem. The Symphony^ ap- 
peared in the same magazine. His new friendship with 
Bayard Taylor produced the invitation to write the words 
for the Centennial cantata. The first collection of his 
poems was published in 1877. In rapid succession he 
wrote three wonderful poems. The Revenge of ITamish^ 
How Love looked for Hell^ and The Marshes of Glynn. 
In 1879, the poet was appointed to a lectureship in the 
Johns Hopkins University. The fruit of this profes- 
sional connection we have in two volumes, neither of 
which is characterized by scientific precision or mi- 
nutely accurate scholarship ; nevertheless The Science 
of English Verse and The English Novel are recog- 
nized as valuable contributions to the study of literature. 
The first of these volumes is an essay on the technical 
side of versification, embodying Lanier's theory of 
rhythm and tone color; it was his belief that the laws 
of verse are identical with those of music. A series of 
books for boys — The Boys King Arthur^ The Boy's 
Eroissart, etc. — were the by-products from his studies 
of the ancient chronicles, put forth to enlarge the scanty 
income. 

During the last two years of the poet's life the 
struggle for poetical achievement grew tragic. In No- 



POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 319 

vember, 1880, he wrote his friend, Paul Hamilton 
Hayne : — 

'^ For six months past a ghastly fever has taken possession 
of me each day at about 12 m., and holding my Ambitions 
head under the surface of indescribable distress luiiumiled. 
for the next twenty hours, subsiding only enough each morn- 
ing to let me get on my working harness, but never inter- 
mitting. ... I have myself been disposed to think it arose 
purely from the bitterness of having to spend my time in 
making academic lectures and boys' books — pot-boilers all 
— when a thousand songs are singing in my heart that will 
certainly kill me if I do not utter them soon." 

Three years earlier he had written bravely in The 

Stirrup-CuiJ : — 

" Death, thou 'rt a cordial old and rare: 
Look how compounded, with what care ! 
Time got his wrinkles reaping- thee 
Sweet herbs from all antiquity. 

" David to thy distillag-e went, 
Keats, and Gotama excellent, 
Omar Khayydra, and Chaucer bright, 
And Shakspere for a king-delight. 

" Then, Time, let not a drop be spilt: 
Hand me the cup whene'er thou wilt, 
'T is thy rich stirrup-cup to me ; 
I '11 drink it down right smilingly." 

And now, in his greatest poem, Sunrise^ completed 
soon after the date of his letter to Hayne, he could 
write in the same jubilant strain : — 

" — manifold One, 
I must pass from thy face, I must pass from the face of the Sun : 
Old Want is awake and agog, every wrinkle a-frown ; 
The worker must pass to his work in the terrible town : 
But I fear not, nay, and I fear not the thing to be done ; 

I am strong with the strength of my lord the Sun : 
How dark, how dark soever the race that must needs be run, 
I am lit with the Sun." 



320 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

In 1881, Lanier was taken to the pine-lands in the moun- 
tains of North Carolina; and there in the September 
following he died. His grave is in Baltimore. A bronze 
bust of the poet is fittingly placed in one of the halls of 
the university where, for so brief a term, he taught. 

In spite of the limitations set by fate upon Lanier's 
Lanier's poetical work, its high quality is evident. It is 
Poems. poetry that charms the ear with its rich melo- 
dies and stirs the spirit by its own spiritual power. A 
Ballad of Trees and the Master is a familiar example 
of this quality. How broad might have been the scope 
of Lanier's eventual achievement can only be inferred 
from the pathetically small amount actually produced. 
He had a vivid imagination and a masterly command 
of expression. His descriptive skill, evidenced in the 
blithe Song of the Chattahoochee and the Hymns of 
the Marshes, was very fine. The Revenge of Hamish is 
an intensely dramatic narrative. A deep moral purpose 
is easily felt in lyrics like Tampa Rohins, The Stirrup- 
Cup, and At Sunset, poems which quite escape the 
didactic tone. But it is in the longer compositions, 
Corn, The Symphony, Psalm of the West, Sunrise, and 
The Marshes of Glynn, that the poet's genius is exhib- 
ited at his highest reach. In Lanier's scanty bequest 
of verse we recognize the beauty and perfection of 
consummate art ; but the true source of his distinction 
lies for most of his readers in the cheery optimism of his 
message ; in the splendid faith, the hearty sympathy and 
unconquerable courage of his own brave and loving 
soul. The strength of his appeal is itself an evidence of 
the truth expressed by the poet in the second line of 
The Symphony, — 

" The Time needs heart — 't is tired of head." 
In general, read Stedman's Poets of America, and refer to 
that critic's American Anthology for selections from the 



POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 321 

poets cited. Lanier is represented at length in Page's The 
Chief American Poets. Hayne's Complete Poems, 
with ii/e, were published in 1882. A Life of 
Timrod was included in the edition of Timrod's poems edited 
by Hayne. An admirable Life of Sidney Lanier has been 
written by Edwin Mims (Houghton MifSin Company). Con- 
sult also Holliday's History of Southern Literature. 

Kepresentative of a generation younger than that of ^ 
our chief American poets, yet closely associ- Aidrich and 
ated with them in personal companionship and stedman. 
in the spirit of their work, are the two distinguished 
writers, Aidrich and Stedman. They form an interesting 
link between the present and the past. Holding more 
than a minor rank as poets, both are prominent among 
American men of letters; both achieved distinction in 
other fields than that of verse. 

Thomas Bailey Aidrich was born in Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire, November 11,1836. On account of m « . , i/ 
business connections in the South, the family drich, 
were for a time accustomed to spend the win- ^®36-i907. 
ter at New Orleans ; but it is the New Hampshire seaport 
town which figures as Rivermouth, the home of Tom 
Bailey, in that most attractive romance of youth. The 
Story of a Bad Boy (1870). His father's death in 1852 
put an end to plans for a college education ; and in his 
seventeenth year, young Aidrich went to New York and 
entered the banking house of his uncle. He soon began, 
however, contributing to the literary journals and made 
acquaintance with N. P. Willis, Bayard Taylor, Stod- 
dard, and Stedman — the last named being only three 
years older than himself. y 

The publication of his beautiful Ballad of Baby Bell v 

(1856) first brought popularity, although a volume of ^^ 
verse. The Bells., had appeared in the previous year, 
when its author was but nineteen. 



322 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

After three years of commercial life, Aldrich aban- 
Editoriai doned the counting-room for the editor's office, 
^ork. ., and for the next ten years was associated with 
one or other of the New York magazines, his principal 
engagement being upon Willis's Home Journal. In 
1865, he removed to Boston and took editorial charge 
of the publication Every Saturday. In 1881, he suc- 
ceeded Mr. Ho wells as editor of the Atlantic Monthly^ 
retaining this position until 1890. 

Meanwhile Aldrich's poems had been appearing in 
successive volumes : Cloth of Gold (1874), 
filled with the rich color of oriental fantasy. 
Flower and Thorn (1876), Friar Jerome's Beautiful 
Book (1881). In the long narrative poem Wyndham 
Towers (1889) the poet's work does not appear to such 
advantage as in the dainty lyrics of sentiment and ro- 
mance which were the fruit of earlier years. No Ameri- 
can poet has written with a more delicate or graceful 
touch. His technique is faultless in such brilliant pieces 
as When the Sultan goes to Ispahan^ The Lunch., Noc- 
turne. Identity^ and Baby Bell., the tender pathos of 
which still retains its grasp on the emotions of its read- 
ers. Aldrich was his own severest critic, and his lines 
were frequently revised. Nothing short of perfection 
satisfied his keen sense of artistic expression. It is his 
own ideal that is embodied in this splendid sonnet : — 

" Enamored architect of airy rhyme, 
Build as thou wilt ; heed not what each man says. 
Good souls, but innocent of dreamers' ways, 
Will come, and marvel why thou wastest time ; 
Others, beholding how thy turrets climb 
'Twixt theirs and heaven, will hate thee all their days ; 
But most beware of those who come to praise. 
Wondersmith, O worker in sublime 
And heaven-sent dreams, let art be all in all ; 
Build as thou wilt, unspoiled by praise or blame, 
Build as thou wilt, and as thy light is given : 



POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 323 

Then, if at last the airy structure fall, 
Dissolve, and vanish — take thyself no shame. 
They fail, and they alone, who have not striven." 

The Sisters' Tragedy (1891) and Unguarded Gates 
(1895) were the titles of the volumes which contained 
his later verse. 

Like his poems, Aldrich's prose works are charac- 
terized by the qualities of vivacity, brilliance, prog^ 
and delicate workmanship. Nothing pleases Works, 
him better than to surprise his reader by some unex- 
pected turn. This is the case in his first successful story, 
— in some respects his best, — Marjorie Daw (1873), 
and in some of his later tales. The novels Prudence 
Palfrey (1874) and The Queen of Sheba (1877) were 
followed, in 1880, by an admirable detective story. The 
Stillwater Tragedy. It is, however, in the field of the 
short story that we most clearly recognize Aldrich's 
power as a writer of fiction, — a field for which his art 
was exceedingly apt. 

Mercedes, a drama (1883), and Judith of Bethulia, 
prepared for the stage in 1905, have not proved 
dramatically successful. It is upon the best of 
his short stories and his earlier lyrics, with their exqui- 
site technique, that Aldrich's literary fame must rest.^ 

Edmund Clarence Stedman was born at Hartford, 
Connecticut, October 8, 1833. His mother, « n st d- 
Elizabeth Dodge Stedman, was a writer of man, 
verse, published several volumes of poems, 
and, through a long residence in Italy, was an inti- 
mate friend of the Brownings. During his undergradu- 
ate course at Yale, young Stedman received a first prize 
for a poem on Westminster Abbey. In 1855, he entered 
the journalistic profession in New York and was one of 

1 An adequate and interesting- biography of the poet is Thomas 
Bailey Aldrich, by Ferris Greenslet (1908). 



324 GENERAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT 

the many talented men who became at various times 
proteges of Horace Greeley, upon the staff of the Trib- 
une. It was at this period that Stedman was thrown 
into intimate association with Stoddard, Taylor, and 
Aldrich. The first literary success came with the pub- 
lication of The Diamond Wedding^ a satirical poem, 
inspired by a real incident in fashionable New York 
society. His Poems^ Lyric and Idyllic^ were published 
in 1860; and in that year the poet went to the front as 
a war-correspondent for the World, 

At the close of the war, Stedman became a banker 
and remained a member of the Stock Exchange 
Banker- until 1890. While thus engaged in active busi- 
^®^" ness, he nevertheless found leisure to practice 

the art of letters to good purpose. Some of his poems, 
like Kearney at Seven Pines, How Old Brown took 
Harper's Perry, Wanted — A Man, and Pan in Wall 
Street, hold a high place in American literature. Yet 
Stedman is in no sense a popular poet and not many of 
his compositions appeal to the public taste. He was not 
subjective, nor is there much intensity or passion in his 
verse. His themes were the immediate suggestions of 
the hour. 

Stedman ranks as our ablest critic of poetic liter- 
ature. He lectured upon Poetry at Johns 
Literary Hopkins University in 1892, and afterward 
^ * °" repeated these lectures at other institutions. 

It was at this time that he formulated his suggestive 
definition of poetry — as " rhythmical, imaginative lan- 
guage, expressing the invention, taste, thought, passion, 
and insight of the human soul." His critical volumes 
are: The Victorian Poets (1S1E>}, Poets of America 
(1885), and The Nature and Elements of Poetry 
(1892). These works are almost indispensable to the 
literary student. Mr. Stedman published A Victorian 



POETRY, SOUTH AND NORTH 325 

Anthology iu 1895, and An American Anthology in 
1900. In collaboration with G. E. Woodberry he edited 
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in 1895, and, with 
Ellen M. Hutchinson, completed the monumental Li- 
hrary of American Literature (11 volumes), in 1889. 
At the funeral of his brother-poet, Aldrich, in March, 
1907, Stedman was a conspicuous figure, fee- 
ble and tottering with the weakness of advanc- 
ing age. Yet death came upon him suddenly as he sat 
among his books, at work, January 18, 1908, — such a 
death as he had craved in Mors Benefica^ — 

" Give me to die unwitting of the day 
And stricken in Life's brave heat, with senses clear." 

And thus the last representative of the older generation 
of American poets had departed. 



CHAPTER VII 

RECENT YEARS 

I. Scholars and Essayists. 
II. Poets of this Generation. 
III. Contemporary Fiction. 

The main facts in the history of our national litera- 
ture have now been mentioned as fully as the purpose of 
the present volume will permit. Some account, however, 
must be taken of contemporary literature ; and although 
it is unwise to pronounce definite judgment on the work 
of living writers, it will be desirable to note briefly the 
more conspicuous literary achievements of the present 
generation. We will therefore consider the work of our 
principal essayists, poets, and novelists not hitherto 
named, in order that we may recognize at least the wide- 
spread activity at the present time in the field of letters. 
Most of the writers to be enumerated belong entirely to 
the period since the Civil War, although in each group 
some are included who were a part of the older genera- 
tion. 

I. SCHOLARS AND ESSAYISTS. 

In the field of literary criticism the work of Edwin 
Literary Percy Whipple (1819-1886) was notable. He 
Critics. ^g^g i^jjQ author of several volumes of scholarly 
essays including Literature and Life (1849), Litera- 
ture of the Age of Elizabeth (1869), and American 
Literature^ and Other Papers (1887). Horace E. 
Scudder (1838-1902), long associated with the publi- 
cation of the Atlantic Monthly^ — he succeeded Aldrich 



SCHOLARS AND ESSAYISTS 327 

as its editor in 1890, — was an indefatigable writer, the 
extent of whose service to American letters is hardly 
understood, since much of his work was anonymous. 
Henry N. Hudson (1814-1886), Richard Grant White 
(1821-1885), William James Rolfe (born 1827) and 
Horace Howard Furness (born 1833) are to be remem- 
bered for their services in the criticism and interpreta- 
tion of Shakespeare's dramas. Their scholarly editions 
of the plays are among the best that have been pro- 
duced. The name of William Winter (born in Massa- 
chusetts, 1836), author of Shakespeare^ s England 
(1886) and our foremost critic of the stage, may be 
mentioned in this connection. 

Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), the distinguished 
Boston clergyman and philanthropist, long Reminis- 
survived the generation which read his earlier cences. 
works. His literary career was remarkably versatile 
and productive. A New England Boyhood (1893) 
and Memories of a Hundred Years (1902) are pleas- 
ant sketch-books of past experience. Ralph Waldo 
Emerson (1902) and James Russell Lowell and his 
Friends (1899) are further contributions to this in- 
teresting series of reminiscent essays. Dr. Hale's 
work in fiction will be referred to later.* Thomas 
Wentworth Higginson (born at Cambridge, 1823) is 
the author of two volumes of reminiscence. Cheerful 
Yesterdays (1898) and Contemporaries (1899) which 
are of especial interest to literary students. He has 
also written biographies of Margaret Fuller Ossoli 
(1884), Longfellow (1903), and Whittier (1903). 
Yesterdays with Authors (1872), a volume written 
by James T. Fields (1817-1881), should be men- 
tioned here. Mr. Fields, a partner in the famous pub- 
lishing house of Ticknor and Fields, has a recognized 
1 See page 340. 



328 RECENT YEARS 

standing among the men of letters. He followed Lowell 
as editor of the Atlantic Monthly^ and was well known 
in his day as a lecturer and an essayist. 

John Burroughs (born in New York state, 1837) is, 
Nature after Thoreau, our foremost writer on nature 
Books. themes. He is not only a lover of the woods 
and fields, but he is a conscientious student of plant and 
animal life. He has no sympathy and scant patience with 
writers on these subjects whose imagination has inter- 
fered with their accuracy ; he describes honestly what 
he observes. Wake-Rohin (1871), Winter Sunshine 
(1875), Birds and Poets (1877), Locusts and Wild 
Honey (1879), Fresh Fields (1884), Signs and Sea- 
sons (1886), Ways of Nature (1905) — these are some 
of his outdoor books; he has written also Literary 
Values (1904), a volume of critical essays, two books 
on Walt Whitman, and Bird and Bough (1906), a 
volume of poems. Harriet Mann Miller (" Olive Thorne 
Miller"), born in New York state, 1831, and Bradford 
Torrey (born in Massachusetts, 1843) have written 
entertainingly of the ways and habits of birds ; while 
Ernest Seton Thompson (born in England, 1860) has 
narrated with a somewhat freer imagination the bio- 
graphies of various wild animals he has known. 

In the field of the distinctively literary essay, Lau- 
Literary rence Hutton (1843-1904), Hamilton Wright 
Essays. Mabie (born 1845), Henry van Dyke (born 
1852), George Edward Woodberry (born 1855), Agnes 
Eepplier (born 1857), Samuel M. brothers (born 1857), 
Bliss Perry (born 1860) are perhaps our best-known 
representatives. There is also an important group of 
Academic university men who have made noteworthy 
Group. contributions to literary history and criticism. 
Chief of these is Moses Coit Tyler (1835-1900), a pro- 
fessor in Cornell University, author of the monumental 



POETS OF THIS GENERATION 329 

History of American Literature in Colonial Times 
(1878) and The Literary History of the American Re- 
volution (1897). Thomas R. Lomisbury (born 1838), 
of Yale University, author of the volume on Cooper 
(1882) in the American 3fen of Letters Series^ Charles 
F. Richardson (born 1851), of Dartmouth, Brander 
Matthews (born 1852), of Columbia, and Barrett 
Wendell (born 1855), of Harvard, have all done con- 
spicuous work in this field. Two distinguished Harvard 
scholars, Francis J. Child (1825-1896) and Charles 
Eliot Norton (1827-1908), should be included in this 
list. Professor Child is our principal authority on the 
Scotch and English ballads; Professor Norton was the 
author of a prose translation of Dante, and edited the let- 
ters of Lowell, of Emerson, of Carlyle, and of Ruskin. 

II. POETS OF THIS GENERATION. 

At the head of our contemporary poets stands Richard 
Watson Gilder (born in New Jersey, 1844). In 1870, 
he became editor of Sci^ihner'^s Monthly^ and in 1881, 
of The Century — a position which he still retains. His 
first volume of verse. The New Day, appeared in 1875. 
A complete edition of The Poems of Richard Watson 
Gilder was published in 1908. 

John James Piatt (born in Indiana, 1835) and his 
wife, Sarah M. Piatt (born in Kentucky, 1836) are 
residents of Ohio. Mr. Piatt was associated with Wil- 
liam Dean Ho wells in the publication of Poems of Two 
Friends (1860). Numerous volumes of his poems have 
appeared since, two of them in association with his wife. 
Mrs. Piatt's Complete Poems (two volumes) were pub- 
lished in 1894. 

Joaquin Miller (born in Indiana, 1841), whose name, 
until the poet changed it, was Cincinnatus Heine Miller, 
removed with his parents to Oregon in 1855, and there 



330 RECENT YEARS 

began a life replete with picturesque experience. His 
first volume, Songs of the Sierras, was published in 
London, in 1871, while the author was visiting England. 
Miller's lyrical romances have not attained wide popu- 
larity, but the fine stanzas of his stirring poen\, Colum- 
bus, may find a place, not undeserved, among the un- 
forgettable poems of our literature. Joaquin Miller lives 
in the mountains not far from Oakland, California, amid 
surroundings similar to those so often reproduced in his 
verse. 

John Banister Tabb (born in Virginia, 1845), a 
Catholic priest, professor of English literature in St. 
Charles' College, in Maryland, is the author of many 
excellent lyrics. The lyric quality also distinguishes the 
work of John Vance Cheney (born in New York, 1848), 
who was from 1894 to 1908 librarian of the Newberry 
Library in Chicago. Lloyd Mifflin (born in Pennsyl- 
vania, 1846) has won distinction especially through his 
sonnets, a collected edition of which appeared in 1905. 

Of the women who have contributed largely to our 
contemporary verse, the following are perhaps the most 
widely known for the literary quality of their work and 
for its sympathetic appeal : Julia C. R. Dorr (born in 
South Carolina, 1825, since 1830 living in Vermont), 
Annie Fields (born in Boston, 1834), the widow of 
James T. Fields, Edna Dean Proctor (born in New 
Hampshire, 1838), Edith M. Thomas (born in Ohio, 
1854, since 1888 living in New York), Helen Gray 
Cone (born in New York, 1859), Louise Imogen 
Guiney (born in Boston, 1861), and Dora Eead Good- 
ale (born in Massachusetts, 1866). 

Will Carleton (born in Michigan, 1845), a journalist 
now living in Brooklyn, first attracted popular interest 
by the publication of Farm Ballads in 1878. His poems 
in dialect, both humorous and pathetic, have extended 
through a lengthy series of volumes. 



POETS OF THIS GENERATION 331 

Eugene Field (1850-1895), for a number of years a 
journalist in Chicago, will long be remembered, not only 
for the whimsical humor of his prose, but for the tender 
pathos of a few poems of child life, like Little Boy 
Blue and Wynhen^ Blynken and Nod. Field was a 
lover of the Latin poet Horace, and the author of some 
happy versions of his odes. A Little Booh of Western 
Verse (1890), With Trumpet and Drum (1892), and 
A Second Book of Verse (1893) contain his familiar 
poems. 

Widely known as a writer of poems in the homely 
dialect of the Indiana farmer, James Whitcomb Riley 
has attained a popularity second to that of no other liv- 
ing American poet. Filled with a genial optimism, a 
universal sympathy, and a kindly sense of humor, Mr. 
Riley's verse has won the hearts of the people. His na- 
ture lyrics are vivid with rural charm and the simple joys 
of country life. He has written many songs for children 
which have long since become classics among child read- 
ers. Mr. Riley was born in Greenfield, Indiana, in 
1853. In 1873, he began newspaper work in Indianap- 
olis, where he has since lived, contributing occasional 
poems in dialect to Indiana papers, using the pen-name 
"Benj. F. Johnson, of Boone." He soon became known 
as " the Hoosier Poet." The Old Sicimmin^ Hole and 
^Leven More Poems was published in 1883, and numer- 
ous collections have since followed. Among his best- 
known poems are : Grig g shy s Station^ Knee-Deep in 
June., An Old Sweetheart of Mine., Old Aunt Mary^s., 
Little Orphant Annie., When the Frost is on the Pun- 
kin. The Old Swimmin* Hole, Tlioughts fer the Dis- 
couraged Farmer — with its cheery strain, — 

" Fer the world is full of roses, and the roses full of dew, 
And the dew is full of heavenly love that drips fer me and you," — 

and many others; so marked by homely sense and a 



332 RECENT YEARS 

democratic simplicity of style that their humanness has 
commended them to readers of all ranks. 

Edwin Markham (born in Oregon, 1852), while a 
teacher in California, wrote and published a remarkable 
poem. The Man with the Hoe (1898), which by its 
rugged strength and elemental feeling achieved an en- 
during fame. Mr. Markham is the author of a poem 
on Lincoln {Lincoln^ and Other Poems^ 1901) which 
deserves the wide recognition it has received; but in 
no other of his quite numerous compositions has he 
equaled the success of his first great poem. He has for 
some years been engaged in editorial work in New York. 

Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855-1896), formerly editor 
of the humorous journal Puch^ was a writer of verse 
in which humor and sentiment were often delicately 
blended. His Airs from Arcady and Elsewhere ap- 
peared in 1884. Another writer whose field has been in 
the poetry of sentiment, and whose popularity seems to 
be well established, is Ella Wheeler Wilcox (born in 
Wisconsin, 1855). Poems of Passion (1883) first drew 
attention to her work. She is actively engaged in jour- 
nalism. 

Samuel Minturn Peck (born in Alabama, 1854) and 
Frank Lebby Stanton (born in South Carolina, 1857) 
are two popular poets of the South. Mr. Peck's first 
volume. Cap and Bells^ appeared in 1886. Mr. Stanton, 
who is on the editorial staff of the Atlanta Constitution^ 
published Songs of the Soil in 1894. Comes One with 
a Song (1898) and Songs from Dixie Land (1900) 
have followed. 

The poetical work of Frank Dempster Sherman (born 
in Peekskill, N. Y., 1860) is represented by Madrigals 
and Catches (1887), Lyrics for a Lute (1890), Lyrics 
of Joy (1904). A Southern Flight (1906) was pub- 
lished in association with Clinton Scollard (born in 



POETS OF THIS GENERATION 333 

Clinton, N. Y., 1860), one of the most prolific of our 
minor poets. Mr. Scollard's earliest publication was 
Pictures in Song (1884). With Reed and Lyre fol- 
lowed in 1886, and at least a dozen volumes of his verse 
have appeared since. From 1888 to 1896, Mr. Scollard 
was professor of English literature in Hamilton College. 
Mr. Sherman is a member of the Faculty of Columbia 
University. 

Bliss Carman (born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, 
1861) has been engaged since 1890 in editorial work in 
the United States. He has attained a substantial posi- 
tion among the younger generation of American nature 
poets. His first collection, Loio Tide on Grand Pre^ 
appeared in 1893. A Sea Marie (1895) and Ballads of 
Lost Haven (1897) were followed by Songs from Vaga- 
hondia (1894), written in collaboration with Kichard 
Hovey. More Songs from Vagabondia appeared in 
1896, and Last Songs from Vagabondia in 1900. A 
collected edition of Bliss Carman's poems (two volumes) 
was published in 1905. Richard Hovey (1864-1900), 
a poet of large promise, was born in Illinois. He, too, 
was a journalist at the time of his collaboration with 
Carman in the three volumes mentioned. Besides the 
poems which celebrate the joys of the open road, — 
Songs from Vagabondia sluS. Along the Trail (1898), 
— he composed a series of poetical dramas, Launcelot 
and Guenevere (1891-1898), and Taliesin: a Masque 
(1899). 

William Vaughn Moody (born in Indiana, 1869), a 
graduate of Harvard and professor|of English in the 
University of Chicago (1895-1907/, published in the 
Atlantic Monthly for May, 1900, a very noteworthy 
poem, An Ode Written in Time of Hesitation, which 
dealt with the popular feeling aroused by the outbreak 
of the Spanish -American War. His first collection of 



334 RECENT YEARS 

Poems appeared in 1901, but a lyrical drama, TTie 
Masque of Judgment^ had been published in 1900. The 
Fire-Bring er (1904) follows as the second drama in a 
proposed trilogy. Mr. Moody has since turned to the 
prose drama, The Great Divide (1907) having met 
with substantial success. 

Percy Wallace MacKaye (born in New York, 1875) 
has won distinction in the dramatic field with two poet- 
ical plays : Jeanne d'Arc (1906) and Sappho and Phaon 
(1907), both of which have been produced with success. 
The Canterhury Pilgrims (1903) and Fenris the Wolf 
(1905) are earlier works, the former, in 1909, being 
presented before various university audiences in the open 
air. 

Josephine Preston Peabody (born in New York, 
1874) was for a time instructor in English literature in 
Wellesley College (1901-1903). The Wayfarers— A 
Booh of Verse appeared in 1898. Besides two other 
volumes of occasional poems, she has published a poet- 
ical drama of remarkable strength and beauty, Marlowe 
(1901) ; Pan — A Choric Idyl (for music) appeared in 
1904. Her sympathetic poems of childhood also call for 
recognition. Since 1906, when Miss Peabody became 
Mrs. L. S. Marks, her home has been in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. 

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), the only re- 
presentative of the African race to attain rank as an 
American poet, was a native of Ohio. His verse is 
often marked by real lyric excellence, his songs in negro 
dialect attracting wide attention. 

William Dean Howells, George Edward Woodberry, 
and Henry van Dyke, although classified as prose 
writers, have all written occasional verse which merits 
more than passing recognition. And there are scores of 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 335 

minor poets whose names might not unworthily find a 
place in a list more complete than this.^ 

III. CONTEMPOKARY FICTION. 

To take adequate account of our contemporary- 
American fiction would require far more space than is 
available in this book ; nor has the time yet come to at- 
tempt an estimate of literary values in this interesting 
field. Hardly more than a list of the most prominent 
among our present-day novelists can be included, with 
a partial classification of their work. Although it is in 
fiction that American writers are now most prolific and 
most successful, it is doubtful if many of these works 
will find a place in the literature which endures, or if 
any of these popular novelists will be long remembered. 
Two schools of fiction are represented : the realistic, 
and the romantic. It is not always easy to discrimi- 
nate, however, and there are writers who have used the 
methods of both schools. 

William Dean Howells, a consistent and uncompro- 
mising representative of the claims of real- ™ „ ^ 
ism, is recognized as easily the foremost eiis, bom 
American novelist in this generation. His ^®^^' 
father was a country editor ; and it was in a printing- 
office in his native state of Ohio that Mr. Howells re- 
ceived his literary training. The publication, with John 
J. Piatt, of Poems of Two Friends (1860) marked the 
beginning of his career. A campaign Life of Lincoln 
in the same year secured his appointment as consul to 
Venice, a position which he held for four years. Vene- 
tian Life (1866) and Italian Journeys (1867) were 
the fruit of foreign residence. In 1866, Mr. Howells was 

^ Consult Stedman's An American Anthology, The Younger American 
Poets, by Jessie B. Rittenhouse, and A Treasury of American Verse, by 
Walter Learned. 



336 RECENT YEARS 

made assistant editor (under James T. Fields) of the 
Atlantic Monthly ; and from 1871 to 1881, he was the 
editor of the magazine. A vivacious novel, Their Wed- 
ding Journey (1871), added to the reputation already 
gained by the two Italian books, and this was increased 
by the stories which followed, A Chance Acquaintance 
(1873) and A Foregone Conclusion (1874). Mr. 
Howells is the author of more than thirty volumes, 
mainly works of fiction. Of these, A Modern Instance 
(1882), The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), and A 
Hazard of New Fortunes (1889) have probably 
aroused widest interest. Mr. Howells's literary work- 
manship is deserving of the highest praise. He is 
minutely conscientious in his studies of character and 
incident, insisting upon careful observation and an 
honest report. His theory of literary art is set forth in 
an interesting essay. Criticism and Fiction (1891). 
Since 1881, the novelist has been associated editorially 
with various periodicals, including Har'pers Magazine, 
While fiction predominates in his published writings, he 
has written a number of humorous parlor plays, several 
volumes of essays upon literary themes, and not a small 
amount of very charming verse. 

Henry James is a native of New York and is pro- 
Henry P^^ly denominated an American writer, al- 
James, though since 1869 he has made his home 
in England. His novels are usually associated 
with those of Mr. Howells as exemplifying the best work 
of the American realists. In Mr. James's narratives we 
find the extreme application of realistic theory along 
with an analysis of character and motive wonderfully 
minute. His novels and short stories are psychological 
studies for the most part, and have a comparatively 
small audience among American readers. As the nov- 
elist was at one time fond of presenting studies of his 



i 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 337 

countrymen as they sometimes appear in Europe, in 
the environment of a superior culture, his work has 
often aroused protest rather than favor here. Such was 
the reception given to Daisy Miller (1878). Others of 
the novels which are eminently characteristic of this 
author are An International Episode (1879), The 
Bostonians (1886), The Princess Casamassima, 
(1886), The Tragic Muse (1890), and What Maisie 
Knew (1897). It is in the craftsmanship and structure 
of his narratives that Mr. James commands most gen- 
eral admiration ; this artistic skill, along with his keen 
wit and general brilliance of style, may be most ad- 
vantageously studied in some of the short stories, — 
which constitute a large portion of his fiction, — as, 
for example, in Terminations (1896) or The Private 
Life and Other Stories (1893). 

Naturally the realistic novelists have, in the selection 
of material, frequently turned to the study g^^^j^g ^j 
of characters and manners with which their Local 
environment has made them well acquainted ; ^'®^" 
there has therefore developed a large group of story- 
writers who deal with local types. 

Following the footsteps of Harriet Beecher Stowe 
in the delineation of the quiet New England in New 
life, Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) pub- England, 
lished the placid but impressive little story. Deep- 
haven^ in 1877. Miss Jewett's work in this field 
has been sympathetic as well as accurate, and her 
novels have appealed strongly to the affections of many 
readers. Of these, A Country Doctor (1884), A 
Marsh Island (1885), and The Country of the 
Pointed Firs (1896) may be mentioned. Elizabeth 
Stuart Phelps Ward (born at Boston, 1844) became 
widely known by the publication of two mystical 
novels. The Gates Ajar (1868) and Men^ Women, and 



338 RECENT YEARS 

Ghosts (1869). The daughter of a noted theologian 
and reared in the serious atmosphere of Andover, Mrs. 
Ward has given a distinctively religious coloring to 
her numerous works, of which The Story of Avis 
(1877), Beijond the Gates (1883), The Madonna of 
the Tuhs (1886), Jack the Fisherman (1887), The 
Gates Between (1887), A Singular Life (1894), and 
The Supply at St. Agatha's (1896), are important 
examples. Margaret Wade Deland, born in Pennsyl- 
vania, 1857, — whose residence, since 1880, has been 
at Boston, — also touched the field of religious experi- 
ence in her first novel, John Ward, Treacher, pub- 
lished in 1888. Philip and his Wife (1894), Sidney 
(1890), The Common Way (1904), and The Awak- 
ening of Helena Itichie (1906) are the most notable 
of her later works. Perhaps the most distinguished suc- 
cess in realistic fiction is found in the work of Mary 
E. Wilkins Freeman (born in Massachusetts, 1862). 
Mrs. Freeman has portrayed with great skill and in- 
tense feeling the more subdued yet rugged phases of 
New England life and character. Her short stories 
are of exceptional strength and exhibit the technical 
methods of realism in perfection. A Humble Romance 
(1887), A New England Nun (1891), Jane Field 
(1892), Pembroke (1894), and Jerome (1897) may 
be cited as examples. Alice Brown (born in New 
Hampshire, 1857) has been especially successful in her 
short stories, such as are gathered -under the titles 
Meadow-Grass (1895), Tiverton Tales (1899), and 
The County Road (1906). Closely akin in local 
color to the work of Mrs. Freeman, these tales admit 
a little more of the brightness and warmth of the New 
England sunshine as it creeps among the shadows of 
humble circumstances. A later novel, The Story of 
Thyrza (1909), is a work of genuine creative power. 



i 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 339 

There are other well-known writers of fiction who 
belong to New England, — at least by birth, uoj^^nce 
— whose work does not permit of such defi- and ideai- 
nite classification as that of the group just 
considered ; it is not concerned with the local type. 
Here belongs the name of Jane G. Austin (1831- 
1894), whose historical novels, Standish of Stand- 
ish (1889), Betti/ Alden (1891), etc., deal with Old 
Colony times. Harriet Prescott Spofford (born in 
Maine, 1835) is the author of numerous romantic 
tales beginning with Si?^ Rohans Ghost (1859). 
Her more recent novels include Priscilla' s Love 
Story (1898), The Maid He Married (1899), and 
The Great Procession (1902). Ellen Olney Kirk 
(born in Connecticut, 1842) published her first novel. 
Love in Idleness^ in 1877. She has written a score of 
popular stories, including Through Winding Ways 
(1880), The Story of Margaret Kent (1886), Sons 
and Daughters (1887), The Apology of Ayliffe 
(1904), and Marcia (1907). Blanche Willis Howard 
(1847-1898), a native of Maine, became the wife of 
Dr. von Teuffel, of Stuttgart in Wiirtemberg, in 
1890. She died at Munich. Her first story, One Sum- 
mer^ a delicate idyl, appeared in 1875 ; Guenn^ a 
Breton Bomance^ in 1882. Clara Louise Burnham 
(born in Massachusetts, 1854) is the daughter of Dr. 
George F. Root, the composer. She has been the au- 
thor of numerous works of fiction, beginning with No 
Gentlemen^ in 1881. Among her later novels, which 
deal largely with the teachings of Christian Science, 
the most successful are The Wise Woman (1895), 
The Bight Princess (1902), and Jewel (1903). Ar- 
thur Sherburne Hardy (born in Massachusetts, 1847), 
a graduate of West Point and at one time professor 
of mathematics in Dartmouth College, has written 



340 RECENT YEARS 

several novels of unusual charm and strength. These 
are But Yet a Woman (1883), The Wind of Destiny 
(1886), Passe i?ose (1889), and His Daughter First 
(1903). Mr. Hardy was editor of The Cosmopolitan 
Magazine (1893-1895) and has served as diplomatic 
representative of the United States in the Orient, in 
Switzerland, and in Spain. Edward Bellamy (1850- 
1898) is best known by two popular studies in political 
economy presented through the medium of romance : 
Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897). 
Robert Grant (born at Boston, 1852), a jurist, is well 
known as a writer of stimulating essays and an author of 
several successful novels. He has found American 
society a fruitful field for his realistic studies, of which 
the most prominent are : An Average Man (1883), 
The Carletons (1891), Unleavened Bread (1900), The 
Undercurrent (1904) and The Chippendales (1909). 
Frederic J. Stimson (born in Massachusetts, 1855), 
like Judge Grant, a representative of the legal profes- 
sion, wrote his earlier novels under the pen-name " J. S. 
of Dale." Guerndale (1882), King Noanett (1896), 
and In Cure of her Soul (1906) are representative 
works. Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), an inde- 
fatigable gleaner in many fields, won merited fame 
with his story, now classic. The Man without a 
Country^ which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 
1863. A long series of tales and narratives — mostly 
with a purpose — includes the novel Philip Nolaris 
Friends (1876) and the religious romance. In His 
Name (1873). John Townsend Trowbridge (born in 
New York, 1827) has been, since 1848, a resident of 
Boston or its suburbs. He, too, is a representative of 
the earlier generation, whose works were popular with 
old and young. His best-known novels are Neighbor 
Jackwood (1857) and Cudjo's Cave (1863). The nar- 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 341 

rative of Jack Hazard and Ms Fortunes (1871) be- 
gan a series of entertaining stories for boys which long 
maintained their place in the affections of the New- 
England youth. 

Indeed juvenile fiction flourished early in New Eng- 
land. The famous " Rollo " and " Lucy " juvenile 
books of Jacob Abbott (1803-1879), which ^^''tio^- 
began to appear about 1840, are now recalled as 
quaint examples of the old-fashioned children's books 
in which instruction was generously mixed with enter- 
tainment. The "Jack Hazard" books were of a differ- 
ent type and were the delight of the younger genera- 
tion that followed; so were the "Elm Island" stories 
written by Rev. Elijah Kellogg (1813-1901), like Ja- 
cob Abbott, a native of Maine. Mrs. Adeline D. T. 
Whitney (1824-1906), author of Faith Gartney's 
Girlhood (1863), Leslie Goldthwaite^ and We Girls 
(1870), and Louisa M. Alcott (1832-1888) were the' 
most popular writers for girls. 

Silas Weir Mitchell (born at Philadelphia, 1830), a 
distinguished physician, after several essays New York 
in fiction became famous as a novelist with andPenn- 
the publication of Hugh Wpine, in 1897. 
This was the beginning in the recent revival of interest 
in the historical novel dealing with the American Re- 
volution. It has its sequel in The Red City (1908). 
Francis. R. Stockton (1834-1902), a native of Phila- 
delphia, best known, perhaps, as the author of The 
Lady or the Tiger (1884), is unique among American 
story-writers for the whimsical mingling of the serious 
and the humorous in fiction. His first notable work 
was Rudder Grange (1879), which one hardly knows 
whether to classify as a novel or as romance ; but its 
very original vein of humor is delicious and runs 
through all of Stockton's succeeding work. Mrs. Amelia 



342 RECENT YEARS 

Edith Barr (bom in England, 1831), since 1869 a 
resident of New York state, has been the prolific au- 
thor of more than thirty works of fiction, including Jan 
Vedder's Wife (1885), The Black Shilling, The Bow 
of Orange Rihhon (1886), etc. Hjalmar Hjorth Boye- 
sen (1848-1895) is another successful American nov- 
elist, not American born ; he was a native of Norway. 
After coming to this country, he filled professorships 
at Cornell and Columbia. Gunnar, a Norse Boniance, 
his first novel, appeared in 1874. Edgar Fawcett 
(1847-1904), also a writer of verse, wrote novels de- 
picting some phases of society in New York. Among 
these are An Ambitious Woman (1883), Social Sil- 
houettes (1885), The House at High Bridge (1886). 
Brander Matthews (born at New Orleans, 1852), since 
1892 a professor at Columbia, a well-known essayist 
and critic, has written realistic studies — both novels 
and short stories — of New York life ; such are 
included in the volumes Vignettes of Manhattan 
(I'^U^, His Father's /^o;^ (1895), and A Confident 
To-morrow (1899). Harold Frederic (1856-1898), a 
New York journalist and foreign correspondent at the 
time of his death, is best remembered by his strong, 
purposeful novel, The Damnation of Theron Ware 
(1896). Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909), most 
cosmopolitan of American writers, both in residence 
and in the material utilized in his novels, was also one 
of the most productive of recent novelists. He was 
the son of the sculptor, Thomas C. Crawford, and was 
born in Italy. His education was attained at St. Paul's 
School, in Concord, New Hampshire, at Trinity Col- 
lege, Cambridge, at Heidelberg, and Kome. During 
1879 and 1880, he engaged in editorial work in India. 
Although his residence was for the rest of his life 
in Italy, he remained strongly patriotic in his sentiment 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 343 

toward the United States, regarding it as his country 
and asserting himself always an American. His first 
novel, 3Ir. Isaacs^ appeared in 1882, and was fol- 
lowed by Dr. Claudius (1883), A Roman Singer 
(1884), Zoroaster (1885), and A Tale of a Lonely 
Parish (1886). The variety of sources from which 
Mr. Crawford drew his material is strikingly suggested 
in the titles of his representative novels, of which the 
following may be mentioned : Paul Patoff (1887), 
Saracinesca (1887), Greifenstein (1889), Khaled 
(1891), Pietro Ghisleri (1893), Katherine Lauder- 
dale (1894), In the Palace of the King (1900), 
A Lady of Rome (1906), Areihusa (1907). He was 
the author of more than forty books, including impor- 
tant studies of Italian history and several plays. Of 
his novels it is conceded that those depicting Italian 
life and character are the most valuable ; and of these, 
three, constituting the Saracinesca series, are the best. 
Mr. Crawford died at his villa in Sorrento, at the age of 
fifty-five. Kate Douglas Wiggin^ now Mrs. Riggs 
(born at Philadelphia, 1857), published her first notable 
story. The Birds' Christmas Carols in 1888, and 
The Story of Patsy in 1889. Of her subsequent stories 
Rebecca (1903) has, perhaps, had the largest success. 
The well-known character Penelope first appeared in 
Penelope's English Experiences (1893). 

Of the present-day novelists in the New York group, 
Mrs. Edith Wharton (born at New York, 
1862) holds a place of distinction based erGenera- 
largely upon her intensely realistic novels, **°^" 
The House of Mirth (1905) and The Fruit of the 
Tree (1907). Owen Wister (born at Philadelphia, 
1860) is known as the author of The Virginian (1902). 
Richard Harding Davis (born at Philadelphia, 1864), 
a journalist by profession and famed as a war cor- 



344 RECENT YEARS 

respondent, is one of the most popular short-story 
writers of the day ; the creator of " Gallagher " and 
" Van Bibber," and author of several popular ro- 
mances, among which are The King's Jackal (1898), 
Soldiers of Fortune (1899), and The White Mice 
(1909). Robert W. Chambers (born at Brooklyn, 
1865) is another popular writer of romantic tales, of 
which Lorraine (1896) and The Fighting Chance 
(1906) are examples. Here, also, should be included 
two representatives of this younger set, whose work 
had aroused wide interest when interrupted by their 
death : Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902), author of 
The Honorable Peter Stirling (1894) and Janice 
Meredith (1899), and Stephen Crane (1871-1900), a 
young New York journalist, who wrote a remarkable 
realistic study of battle, The Med Badge of Courage 
(1896). 

The Southern States are well represented in the fic- 
Southem ^^^^ which depicts local types of character, 

story- and have, besides, produced novelists of note 

Tellers. , , . i • 'j. 

whose work is more general m its scope. 

Similar to the work of some of the New England 
realists is that of Richard Malcolm Johnston 
(1822-1898), whose novels and tales por- 
tray the picturesque manners prevailing in portions of 
his native state. Old Mark Langston (1883), The 
Primes and their Neighbors (1891), Peavce Amer- 
soi-is Will, and Old Times in Middle Georgia 
(1897) are examples. Joel Chandler Harris (1848- 
1908), for twenty-five years editor of the Atlanta Con- 
stitution^ has worked in the same field. Balaam and 
Us Master (1891), On the Plantation (1892), 
Stories of Georgia, TJie Story of Aaron, Tales of 
the Home Folks, are the titles of other well-known 
volumes; but it is as "Uncle Remus," teller of tales 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 345 

concerning Br'er Kabbit and Br'er Fox, that this au- 
thor is most widely known. Unde Remus — His 
Songs and his Sayings was published in 1880. Told 
hy tincle Remus appeared in 1905, and almost the 
last publication of this writer was a volume entitled 
Uncle Remus and Brer Rahh'it (1907). 

Thomas Nelson Page (born in Virginia, 1853) has 
written stories which have their scene in the 
Old Dominion. Amono^ them are: In Ole 



Virginia. 



Virginia (1887), Two Little Confederates (1888), 
Melt Lady^ Marse Chan ; a later novel, Red Roch^ 
appeared in 1898. 

James Lane Allen (born in Kentucky, 1849) is less 
of realist than idealist ; the idyllic quality ap- 
pears predominant in A Kentucky Cardinal 
(1894) and its sequel, Aftermath (1896). The Choir 
Invisible (1897) and The Reign of Laio (1900) 
are historical romances depicting early life in the state. 
Mr. Allen's style is distinguished by unusual literary 
charm. More distinctive studies of local types are 
found in the realistic novels of John Fox, Jr. (born in 
Kentucky, 1862). A Mountain Burojja (1894), Hell 
fer Sartain (1896), and The Kentuckians (1897) in- 
troduced Mr. Fox to readers of fiction. More recently 
have appeared The Little Shepherd of Kingdom 
Come (1903) and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine 
(1908). 

Mary Noailles Murfree (born in Tennessee, 1850) 
for some years successfully concealed her 
identity under the pen-name " Charles Eg- 
bert Craddock." In the Tennessee Mountains (1884), 
The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountaiii (1885), 
and Li the Clouds (1886) began a series of strong and 
interesting tales of the mountain whites — a class which 
Miss Murfree has continued to depict in her later works. 



346 RECENT YEARS 

The touch of the romanticist is evident in the work 

of George Washington Cable (born at New 

Louisiana. Qj^^^^^^g^ ISU), Although Mr. Cable has 

been a resident of Massachusetts for many years, his 
stories belong to the southland. Old Creole Days 
(1879), The Grandlssimes (1880), Madame Bel- 
pJiine (1881), Dr. Sevier (1885), and Bonaventure 
(1888) are representative works. Kuth McEnery 
Stuart (bom in Louisiana, 1856) has depicted with 
keen sense of humor some phases of Southern life, both 
white and black. A Golden Wedding and Other 
Tales appeared in 1893 ; Carlotta's Intended and 
The Story of Babette (1894) were followed by Sonny 
(1896), a unique and fascinating character study. The 
reconstructed negro appears in the later creations of 
Napoleon Jackson (1902) and George Washington 
Jones (1903). The River's Children (1904) is a 
genuine idyl of the Mississippi. Grace Elizabeth King 
(born at New Orleans, 1852) has written of the 
Creoles in Monsieur Motte (1888), Tales of Time 
and Place (1892), and Balcony Stories (1893). 
Frances Hodgson Burnett (born at Manchester, 
England, 1849) removed to the United 
Broader States in 1865, residing for ten years in 
Scope. Tennessee, and then for a period in Wash- 

ington, D. C. Mrs. Burnett's first novels. That Bass 
o' Bowrie's (1877) and Haworth's (1879), portray 
life among the working people of Lancashire. Her 
Through One Administration (1883) deals with of- 
ficial society life in Washington. Bittle Bord Faunt- 
leroy (1886) was an exceedingly popular juvenile, 
which was followed by others almost as successful. 
Mrs. Burnett has lived of late years in England. A 
Lady of Quality appeared in 1896, The Shuttle^ 
in 1907. Amelie Eives, Princess Troubetzkoy (born 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 347 

at Richmond, Virginia, 1863), owes her literary repu- 
tation largely to her first novel, TJie Quick or the 
Dead^ published in 1888. A Brother to Dragons ap- 
peared the same year. Perhaps the best known of our 
writers from the South is Francis Hopkinson Smith 
(born at Baltimore, 1838), a versatile master of sev- 
eral arts including the substantial one of building 
lighthouses. His first success in fiction was the fine 
character sketch, Colonel Carter of CartersviUe 
(1891). Tom Grogan (1896), Caleb West (1898), 
and The Tides of Barnegat (1906) are all realistic 
studies of the people whom the author may have known 
when living the practical business life of a building 
contractor and mechanical engineer. The Fortunes of 
Oliver Home (1902) is said to be reminiscent of that 
period in Mr. Smith's life when he was an art student 
in New York. His recent stories, The Romance of an 
Old-Fashioned Gentleman (1907) and Peter (1908), 
indicate a return to the more sentimental manner of 
his earliest success. Albion W. Tourgee (1838-1905), 
a native of Ohio and an officer in the Union army 
throughout the Civil War, lived in North Carolina 
from 1865 to 1881, and during this period wrote three 
or four novels dealing with political conditions in the 
South. Of these, A FooVs Errand (1879) and Bricks 
Without Sti^aio (1880) aroused widespread interest. 
Tourgee afterward served as United States Consul at 
Bordeaux and at Halifax, and was the author of 
numerous stories and novels. 

Among the younger writers who are natives of the 
South, three have especial distinction as sue- ^j^g young- 
cessf ul novelists in the broader field of fie- ^^ Genera- 
tion. Mary Johnston (born in Virginia, 1870) southern 
has written three historical romances dealing writers, 
with old colony times in Virginia : Pinsoners of Hope 



348 RECENT YEARS 

(1898), To Have and to Hold (1900), and Sir Morti- 
mer (1904). In Lewis Rand (1908), Miss Johnston 
presents a picturesque study of political life at the 
opening of the nineteenth century. The Goddess of 
Reason (1907) is a notable drama on the theme of the 
French Revolution. Winston Churchill (born at St. 
Louis, 1871) has taken a conspicuous place among writers 
of historical romance with his impressive series dealing 
with great epochs in American history : Richard Carvel 
(1899), The Crisis (1901), and The Crossing (1904). 
To these novels must be added his first story, The 
Celebrity (1898), and his later work, Coniston (1906). 
Ellen A. G. Glasgow (born at Richmond, Virginia, 
1874) is the author of three realistic novels of un- 
usual power: The Descendant (1897), The Deliverance 
(1904), and TJie Wheel of Life (1906). 

The promise of the West as a field for the writer of 
The Indiana fiction came with the publication of The 
Novelists. Hoosier Schoolmaster (1871). This book 
was a realistic study of character in southern Indiana 
of the early fifties. Its author, Edward Eggleston 
(1837-1902), was born in the pioneer days of the state 
at the little town of Yevay, on the Ohio River. He 
entered the ministry of the Methodist Church, and 
became what was then known as a "circuit rider," 
ministering to a parish which required a four weeks' 
itinerary, involving both hardship and peril. In six 
months his health broke down, and he removed to 
Minnesota. In 1886, he engaged in editorial work at 
Chicago, and in 1874 became pastor of a church in 
Brooklyn, New York, to which he gave the name 
of the Church of Christian Endeavor. The Hoosier 
Schoolmaster met with wide popularity and was 
translated into several languages. It was followed by 
The Mystery of Metropolisville (1873), with its setting 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 349 

in Minnesota, and The Circuit Rider (1874), the 
scene of which is laid in Ohio. jRoxy (1878) and The 
Graysons (1887) are again portrayals of Hoosier 
types. 

The state of Indiana has made a remarkable record 
in the literary history of the middle West. Lew Wallace 
(1827-1905), the author of Ben Hur^ was a native of 
the state and made his home at Crawfordsville, the 
" Hoosier Athens." He served in the Mexican War, 
and later in the Civil War, receiving the rank of 
Major-General, for gallantry in the field. His first ro- 
mance. The Fair God (1873), was an Aztec story, the 
inspiration of which came from the reading of Pres- 
cott's histories. Ben Hur^ a Tale of the Christ (1880) 
was the result of a conscientious study of the founda- 
tions of the Christian faith. The author^s treatment 
of his difficult subject is scholarly and reverent. The 
popularity of the work has fairly rivaled that of 
Uncle Tom's Cabin. General Wallace was appointed 
governor of New Mexico in 1878 ; and it was while 
living at Santa Fe that he wrote the larger part of the 
romance. A later story. The Prince of India (1893), 
was an outcome of Wallace's residence at Constanti- 
nople as minister to Turkey. 

Maurice Thompson (1844-1901), also a resident of 
Crawfordsville, has been mentioned already as a writer 
of verse. ^ He was a novelist as well, the author of sev- 
eral popular stories, of which A Tallahassee Girl 
(1882) and Alice of Old Vincennes (1900) are note- 
worthy. Among more recent writers who have added 
to the literary reputation of the Hoosier state are : 
Newton Booth Tarkington (born 1869), author of 
The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), Monsieur 
Beaucaire (1900), The Two Vanrevels (1902} , Cherry 

1 See page 312. 



350 RECENT YEARS 

(1903), The Conquest of Canaan (1905), etc. Charles 
Major (born 1856), whose very popular romance, When 
Knighthood was in Flower^ appeared in 1898; Mere- 
dith Nicholson (born 1866), author of several romantic 
narratives ^ of which The House of a Thousand Can- 
dles (1905) and The Port of Missing Men (1907) are 
prominent ; and George Barr McCutcheon (born 1866), 
whose Graustark (1900), Craneycrow (1902), and 
Beverly of Graustarh (1904) are best known. Here 
also should be included the name of the versatile hu- 
morist George Ade (born 1866), whose first literary 
successes, Artie, Pink 3Iarsh, Doc Home, etc., were 
produced while Mr. Ade was writing on the staff of a 
Chicago newspaper (1890-1900). 

Captain Charles King (born at Albany, New York, 
The West 1844), now living at Milwaukee, a retired 
in General, army officer, is the author of a long list of 
tales, the material of which is mainly drawn from 
military life. These include TJie Colonel's Daughter 
(1883), The Deserter (1887), Captain Blake (1892), 
The General's Double (1897), and many more. 

Constance Fenimore Woolson (1848-1894), a de- 
scendant of James Fenimore Cooper, was born in New 
Hampshire, but her home in later life was at Cleve- 
land, Ohio. Her summers were usually spent on the 
shores of Lake Superior, or at Mackinac ; she resided 
also in Florida. Her principal novels are : Castle No- 
where (l^lb^.Anne (1882), East Angels (1886), and 
Jupiter Lights (1889). 

Mary Hallock Foote (born in New York, 1847) 
lived for some years in Colorado, California, and 
Idaho, accompanying her husband, a civil engineer. 

1 Mr. Nicholson is also author of The Hoosiers (1900), which g-ives an 
account in detail of the Indiana writers. It will be found interesting as 
a source of further information on this section. 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 351 

Her most successful novels deal realistically with the 
life of the mining camp and the hills. These are The 
Led Horse Claim (1883), John Bodewin's Testimony 
(1886), and Cceur d'Alene (1894). 

Mary Hartwell Catherwood (1847-1902), a native 
of Ohio, later a resident of Illinois, was the author of 
several interesting historical novels for the most part 
concerned with historic epochs in the region of the St. 
Lawrence and the Great Lakes, and in the valleys of 
the Mississippi and the Illinois. It was The Romance 
of Dollard (1889) which began the series of her 
works — a series which owed its inception to the fasci- 
nating narratives of Francis Parkman. Old Kashaskia 
(1893) and The White Islander (1893), The Lady 
of Fort SL John (1892) and The Little Renault 
(1897) are vigorous narratives of romantic adventure. 
Mrs. Catherwood's last work, Lazarre (1901), is based 
on the tradition which identifies the Dauphin of 
France, who disappeared mysteriously from Paris at 
the outbreak of the Revolution, with a lad in America 
who went by the name of Eleazar Williams and was 
reputed of royal birth. 

Alice French, " Octave Thanet " (born in Massa- 
chusetts, 1850), is a resident of Davenport, Iowa. A 
part of the year she makes her home in a quiet spot in 
Arkansas. Both places serve as setting in some of her 
stories. Miss French is a realist ; the relations between 
labor and capital have proved interesting and effective 
material in her hands. Among her works are: Knit- 
ters in the Sun (1887), Expiation (1890), Otto the 
Knight (1893), Stories of a Western Town (1893), 
The Heart of Toil (1898), and The Man of the Hour 
(1905). 

Henry Blake Fuller (born at Chicago, 1857) has 
ably represented the western metropolis in modern fie- 



352 RECENT YEARS 

tion. Beginning his literary career with two fantastic 
A Chicago romances, The Chevalier of Pensieri- Vani 
group. (1891) and The Chatelaine of La Trinite^ 
Mr. Fuller (1892) next appeared as a realistic novelist 
of keen vision and serious purpose. He portrayed some 
phases of Chicago society in The Cliff Did ellers (1893), 
and With the Procession (1895). Mr. Fuller's latest 
work. The Last Refuge (1901), is in line with his earlier 
volumes, romantic, whimsical, and strongly symbolistic. 

Hamlin Garland (born in Wisconsin, 1860), for 
a time resident in the East, but now identified with 
Chicago, is a realist in principle, although some of his 
more recent work is softened by touches of romanticism. 
Mr. Garland's first publication. Main Travelled Roads 
{1890), was a volume of short stories realistic and some- 
what cynical intone. Jason Edwards (1891), A Little 
Norsh (1891), A Spoil of Office (1892), A Member of 
the Third House (1892), and Rose of Butcher^ s Coolly 
(1895) followed in similar vein. The Eagle's Heart 
(1900), Her Mountain Lover (1901), The Captain of 
the Gray Horse Troop> (1902), and Hesper (1903) 
are all stories of the rugged, unconventional life of 
mountain, mine, and camp, in which romance blends 
with realism. 

Will Payne (born in Illinois, 1865), since 1890 a 
Chicago journalist and for several years editor of 
The Economist, is the author of numerous short stories 
and of several novels. Jerry the Dreamer was pub- 
lished in 1896, The Story of Eva in 1901. Two of 
Mr. Payne's realistic novels, The Money Captain 
(1898) and Mr. Salt (1903), are distinctively studies 
of commercial life and admirable essays in this field. 

Robert Herrick (born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
1868), a Harvard man and, since 1893, a member of the 
Faculty in the University of Chicago, holds a leading 



CONTEMPORARY FICTION 353 

place among western realists. Like Mr. Fuller, he has 
been impressed by certain phases of American social 
life and has written somewhat sombre but carefully 
studied narratives which have their setting in the great 
city of the middle West. These include The Gospel 
of Freedom (1898), The Weh of Life (1900), The 
Common Lot (1904), and Together (1908). 

One of the youngest and one of the most promising 
in this group of western realists was Frank Norris 
(1870-1902). Mr. Norris was born at Chicago, but part 
of his life was spent on the Pacific coast and another 
portion of it in New York. He was a journalist and 
served as war correspondent in South Africa and 
Cuba. At the time of his death he was a resident in 
California. Mr. Norris's claim to distinction is found in 
a projected series of three novels planned to embody his 
great idea, — what he called the epic of the wheat. T%e 
Octopus (1901) is the first of the series and deals with 
the planting and harvesting of the crop ; its scene is 
laid in southern California. The Pit (1903) pictures 
the selling of the wheat, and dramatically portrays the 
life which centres in the Chicago Board of Trade. The 
last book of the trilogy was to have dealt with the 
distribution of the wheat in Europe, and would have 
been entitled TJie Wolf as symbolizing the experiences 
of famine in Russia. Although uncompleted, the large 
conception of this young enthusiast is worthy of more 
than passing note, while his actual achievement is in 
itself remarkable. 



354 



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INDEX 



Abbott, Jacob, 341. 

Abbots ford and Newstead Abbey 

(Irving), 114. 
Abraham Lincoln (Hay and Nico- 

lay), 312. 
Adams, Abigail, 71. 
Adams, John, 66, 71. 
Adams, John Quincy, 157. 
Adams, Samuel, 66. 
Addison, Joseph, 31, 57, 107, 111, 

116, 293. 
Ade, George, 350. 
Adventures of Captain Bonneville 

(Irving), 114. 
Adventures of one Hans Pfaal (Poe), 

212. 
Afloat and Ashore (Cooper), 125. 
After the Burial (Lowell), 261. 
Aftermath (Allen), 345. 
Agassiz (Lowell), 263. 
Age of Reason, The (Paine), 69. 
Ages, The (Bryant), 136, 137. 
Agnes of Sorrento (Stowe), 306. 
Airs from Arcady and Elsewhere 

(Bunner), 332. 
Airs of Palestine (Pierpont), 102. 
Al Aaraaf (Poe) , 204. 
Albany, N. Y., 309. 
Alcott, Amos Bronson, 152, 154, 

164, 193. 
Alcott, Louisa May, 155, 341. 
Alcuin (Brown), 87. 
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey. First 

poems, 321; editorial work, 322; 

volumes of poems, 322 ; tech- 
nique, 322; prose works, 323; 

mentioned, 326. 
Algerine Captive, The (Tyler), 86. 
Algonquin Bible, The, 27. 
Alice of Old Vincennes (Thompson), 

349. 
Allen, James Lane, 345. 
Allston, Washington, 103. 
Almanac (Franklin), 58, 62. 
Almanack, Pierce's, 33. 
Alnwick Castle (Halleck), 99. 
Along the Trail (Hovey), 333. 
Ambitious Guest, The (Hawthorne), 

198. 



Ambitious Woman, An (Fawcett), 

342. 
America (Smith), 103. 
American Anthology, An (Stedman) , 

325. 
American Flag, The (Drake), 100. 
American Lands and Letters (Mit- 
chell), 294. 
American Literature (Whipple), 326. 
American Magazine and Historical 

Chronicle, The, 90. 
American Manufacturer, 239. 
American Note-Books (Hawthorne), 

190, 197. 
American Poetry (Bryant), 136. 
American Soldier's Hymn, 76. 
American spirit, first genuine, 10. 
American Times, The (Odell), 72. 
American Weekly Mercury, The, 89, 

54. 
Amesbury, Mass., 243. 
Among my Books (Lowell), 261. 
Anacreon in Heaven, 103. 
Analytical tales, Poe's, 206, 212. 
Andover, Mass., 35, 338. 
Andover Theological Seminary ,150. 
Andre, Major, 79. 
Angler, The (Irving), 111. 
Annabel Lee (Poe), 209, 214. 
Anne (Woolson), 350. 
Apology of Ayliffe, The (Kirk), 339. 
April (Whittier), 244. 
Arabian Nights, The, 297. 
Areopagitica (Milton), 25. 
Arethusa (Crawford), 343. 
Army Corps on the March, An 

(Whitman), 299. 
Art (Emerson), 168. 
"Artemus Ward," 307. 
Arthur Bonnicastle (Holland), 294. 
Arthur Mervyn (Brown), 87, 89. 
Artie (Ade), 350. 
AsTOR, John Jacob, 99. 
Astoria (Irving), 114. 
At Magnolia 'Cemetery (Timrod), 

315. 
At Sunset (Lanier), 320. 
At the Saturday Club (Holmes), 274. 

277. 



360 



INDEX 



Atlanta Constitution, 332, 344. 
Atlantic Monthly, The, 246, 261, 

270, 272, 274, 322, 326, 328, 333, 

336, 340. 
Aurelian (Ware), 304. 
Austin, Jane G., 339. 
Autobiography (Clemens), 309. 
Autobiography (Franklin), 60, 62, 
Autobiography (Gibbon), 280. 
Autobiography (Jefferson), 70. 
Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, The 

(Holmes), 270, 271. 
Autumn Woods (Bryant), 138. 
Average Man, An (Grant), 340. 
Awakening of Helena Richie, The 

(Deland), 338. 

Backlog Studies (Warner), 294. 
Backwoodsman, The (Paulding), 98. 
Bacon, Francis, 2. 
Bagatelles (Franklin), 62. 
Balaam and His Master (Harris), 

344. 
Balcony Stories (King), 346. 
Ballad of Baby Bell (Aldrich), 321, 

322. 
Ballad of the Oyster- Man, The 

(Holmes), 269. 
Ballad of the Trees and the Master, 

A (Lanier), 320. 
Ballads, and Other Poems (Long- 
fellow), 223. 
Ballads of Lost Haven (Carman), 

333. 
Balloon Hoax, The (Poe), 212. 
Baltimore, Md., 317. 
Bancroft, George, 189, 285. 
Barbara Frietchie (Whittier), 245. 
Barefoot Boy, The (Whittier), 236, 

244. 
Barlow, Joel, 73. 
Barnaby Rudge (Dickens), 206. 
Barr, Amelia Edith, 342. 
Battle Hymn of the Republic, The 

(Howe), 311. 
Battle of Bunker Hill. The (Brack- 

enridge), 84. 
Battle of the Kegs, The (Hopkinson), 

77, 79. 
Battle of Trenton, The, 76. 
Bay Path (Holland), 294. 
Bay Psalm Book, The, 27, 33. 
Bedouin Song (Taylor), 291. 
Beecher, Henry Ward, 150, 289, 

305. 
Beecher, Lyman, 150. 
Before the Curfew (Holmes), 276. 
Being a Boy (Warner), 295. 



Beleaguered City, The (Longfellow), 
222. 

Belfry of Bruges, and Other Poems 
(Longfellow), 223. 

Bellamy, Edward, 340. 

Bells, The (Aldrich), 321. 

Bells, The (Poe), 214, 209. 

Bells of San Bias, The (Longfellow), 
228. 

Ben Hur (Wallace), 349. 

*'Benj. F. Johnson of Boone," 331. 

Beppo (Byron), 99. 

Betty Alden (Austin), 339. 

Beverley, Robert, 48. 

Beverly of Graustark (McCutcheon), 
350. 

Beyond the Gates (Ward), 338. 

Bianca Visconti (Willis), 104. 

Bible, The, 290. 

Biglow Papers (Lowell). First 
series, 259; second series, 261. 

Bill and Joe (Holmes), 276. 

Biographical and critical authori- 
ties, Irving, 118; Cooper, 128; 
Bryant, 147; Emerson. 177; 
Thoreau, 182; Hawthorne, 199; 
Poe, 215 ; Longfellow, 233 ; Whit- 
tier, 252; Lowell, 267; Holmes, 
278; the Historians, 286; Whit- 
man, 302; the Southern Novel- 
ists, 310; the Southern Poets, 
320. See also Suggestions for 
Reading. 

Biographical Stories (Hawthorne), 
192. 

Bird, Robert M., 302. 

Bird and Bough (Burroughs), 328. 

Birds and Poets (Burroughs), 328. 

Birds' Christmas Carol, The (Wig- 
gin), 343. 

Birthmark, The (Hawthorne), 199. 

Bishop Laud, 22. 

Bitter-Sweet (Holland), 294. 

Bivouac of the Dead, The (O'Hara), 
313. 

Bivouac on a Mountainside (Whit- 
man), 299. 

Black Cat, The (Poe), 212. 

Black Shilling, The (Barr), 342. 

Blithedale Romance, The (Haw- 
thorne), 153, 190, 193. 

Bloody Tenet encounter between 
Williams and Cotton, 25. 

Boar's Head Tavern, The (Irving), 
111. 

Boker, George Henry, 295. 

Bold Hathorne, Ballad of, 79, 183. 

Bonaventure (Cable), 346. 



INDEX 



361 



Bonifacius (Mather), 30. 
Book of Roses (Parkman), 285. 
Boston, why so named, 23. 
Boston, birthplace of Franklin, 52 ; 

of Emerson, 157; of Poe, 200; 

home of Holmes, 273. 
Boston Advertiser, 269. 
Boston Athenaeum, 158. 
Boston Courier, The, 258. 
Boston Gazette, The, 54, 89. 
Boston Hymn (Emerson), 173. 
Boston Magazine, The, 90. 
Boston Massacre, The, 67. 
Boston Miscellany, The, 256. 
Boston News Letter, The, 54, 89. 
Boston Token, The, 187. 
Bostonians, The (James), 337. 
Bow of Orange Ribbon, The (Barr), 

342. 
Bowdoin College, Hawthorne, 184; 

Longfellow, 218, 241; Dr. Stowe, 

305. 
BoYESEN, Hjalmar Hjorth, 342. 
Boy's Froissart, The (Lanier), 318. 
Boy's King Arthur, The (Lanier), 

318. 
Boys, The (Holmes), 276. 
Bracebridge Hall (Irving), 97, 111. 
Brackenridge, Hugh H., 84, 86, 

90. 
Bradford, William, 13. 
Bradstreet, Anne, 35, 101, 268. 
Brahma (Emerson), 171. 
Brave Paulding and the Spy, 79. 
Bravo, The (Cooper), 124. 
Breadwinners, The, 312. 
Bricks. Without Straw (Tourg6e), 

347. 
Bridge, Horatio, 184, 187, 190. 
Bridge, The (Longfellow), 231. 
British Prison Ship, The (Freneau), 

81. 
Broadway Journal, 208. 
Brook Farm, 153, 189, 193, 292. 
Brooklyn Eagle, The, 297. 
Broomstick Train, The (Holmes), 

276. 
Brother to Dragons, A (Rives), 347. 
Brown, Alice, 338. 
Brown, Charles Brockden, 86, 

95, 119, 303. 
Browne, Charles F., 307. 
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 

211, 256. 
Brutus (Payne), 102. 
Bryant, William Cullen. School 

days, 130; at Williams College, 
130 ; The Embargo, 130 ; Thanatop- 



sis, 132; studying law, 132; To a 
Waterfowl, 13"' ; Inscription for 
the Entrance to a Wood, 134; 
American Poetry, 136; Hymn to 
Death, 136 ; O Fairest of the Rural 
Maids, 136; The Ages, 136; first 
volume of verse, 137 ; removal to 
New York, 138; The Evening 
Post, 138; volume of 1832, 139; 
travels, 139; Letters of a Travel- 
ler, 140; Letters from the Far 
East, 140; citizen and orator, 
140; translation of Homer, 141; 
in old age, 141 ; the poet's homes, 
142; death, 142; as a poet, 143; 
descriptive poems , 143 ; tech- 
nique, 145; suggestions for read- 
ing, 146; mentioned, 95, 97, 101. 
127, 171, 192, 205, 211, 220, 230, 
241, 262, 277. 

Buccaneer, The (Dana), 101. 

Bunker Hill, 68. 

Bunner, Henry Cuyler, 332. 

Bunyan, John, 31, 41, 53, 188. 

Burke, Edmund, 69, 70. 

Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 346. 

Burnham, Clara Louise, 339. 

Burns, Robert, 83, 189, 237, 246. 

Burns (Halleck), 99. 

Burroughs, John, 328. 

Burton, Richard, 53. 

Burton's Magazine, 207. 

Busy Body, The (Franklin), 56. 

Butler, Samuel, 73. 

But Yet a Woman (Hardy), 340. 

By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame, 299. 

Byron, Lord, 97, 103, 119, 202, 
204. 

Cable, George W., 346. 

Caleb West (Smith), 347. 

Caleb Williams (Godwin), 89. 

Calhoun, John C, 289. 

California and Oregon Trail, The 
(Parkman), 284. 

Calif omian. The, 308. 

Cambridge, Mass., site of Harvard 
College, 13 ; centre of intellectual 
activity, 149; Longfellow, 222; 
Lowell, 253 ; Holmes, 268. 

Cambridge Thirty Years Ago (Low- 
ell), 261. 

Camden, N. J., 301. 

Camp Ballad (Hopkinson), 78. 

Canterbury Pilgrims, The (Mae- 
Kaye), 334. 

Cap and Bells (Peck), 332. 

Captain Blake (King), 350. 



3G2 



INDEX 



Captain of the Gray Horse Troop^ 
The (Garland). 352. 

Carleton, Will, 330. 

Carktons, The (Grant), 340. 

Carlotta's Intended (Stuart), 346. 

Carlyle, Thomas, 152, 161, 169, 
288. 

Carman, Bliss, 333. 

Gary, Alice, 248, 311. 

Gary, PhObbe, 248, 311. 

Cask of Amontillado, The (Poe), 
213. 

Cassandra Southwick (Whittier) , 
244. 

Castilian Days (Hay), 312. 

Cattle by the Sea, The (Longfellow), 
232. 

Castle Craneycrow (McCutcheon), 
350. 

Castle Nowhere (Woolson), 350, 

Cathedral, The (Lowell), 263. 

Catherwood, Mary Hartwell, 35. 

Gavaliers, the, 9. 

Gavalier poets, the, 83. 

Cavalry Crossing a Ford (Whitman) , 
299. 

Celebrated Jumping Frog, The 
(Glemens), 308. 

Celebrity, The (Churchill), 348. 

Century, Tfte, 294, 329. 

Century of Dishonor (Jackson) .311. 

Chainbearer, The (Cooper), 125. 

Chambered Nautilus, The (Holmes), 
272, 276. 

Chambers, Robert W., 344. 

Chance Acquaintance, A (Howells), 
336. 

Changeling, The (Lowell), 260. 

Channing, William Ellery, 150, 
191. 

Chapel of the Hermits (Whittier), 
244. 

Character (Emerson), 169. 

Characters in Cooper's novels, 124, 
126. 

Characters in Hawthorne's The Mar- 
ble Faun, 194; in Hawthorne's 
The Scarlet Letter, 191 ; in Whit- 
tier's Snow-Bound, 246; in Long- 
fellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, 
231 ; in Whittier's The Tent on the 
Beach, 246. 

Characters interpreted in Emerson's 
Representative Men, 169. 

Characteristics of Franklin's liter- 
ary work, 62. 
Charles I, 9. 
♦' Charles Egbert Craddock," 345.- 



Charleston, S. C, 303, 314. 

Charlotte Temple (Rowson), 85. 

Chatelaine of La Trinite, The (Ful- 
ler), 352. 

Chaucer (Longfellow), 232. 

Cheerful Yesterdays (Higginson), 
327. 

Cheney, John Vance, 330. 

Cherry (Tarkington), 349. 

Chevalier of Pensieri-Vani, The, 
(Fuller), 352. 

Child, Francis J., 329. 

Child, Lydia Maria, 304. 

Children, The (Longfellow), 231. 

Children's Hour, The (Longfellow), 
232. 

Chippendales, The (Grant), 340. 

Choate, Rufus, 289. 

Choir Invisible, The (Allen) , 345. 

Christus (Longfellow), 227. 

Chronological History of New Eng- 
land (Prince), 16. 

Chronological Reviews: 17th Cen- 
tury, 43; 18th Century, 93; 
1800-1835, 148; 1836-1880, 354- 
357. 

Churchill, Winston, 348. 

Circles (Emerson), 168. 

Circuit Rider, The (Eggleston), 
349. 

City in the Sea, The (Poe), 204, 214. 

Civilization (Emerson), 173. 

Clara Howard (Brown), 87. 

Clari, the Maid of Milan (Payne), 
102. 

Clarke, James Freeman, 152. 

Clay, Henry, 240, 289. 

Clemens, Samuel L., 294, 307. 

Clergy, The New England, 21-31. 

Clerical Oppressors (Whittier), 242. 

Cliff Dwellers, The (Fuller), 352. 

Cloth of Gold (Aldrich), 322. 

Ccmr d'Alene (Foote), 351. 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor,- 97, 
151, 161, 215, 307. 

Coliseum, The (Poe), 214. 

Colonel Carter of Carter sville (Smith), 
347. 

Colonel's Daughter, The (King), 
350. 

Columbia (Dwight), 75, 78. 

Columbia University, 67. 

Columbiad, The (Barlow), 73. 

Columbus (Miller), 330. 

Comes One with a Song (Stanton), 
332. 

Comet, The (Holmes), 269. 

Commemoration Ode (Lowell), 173. 



INDEX 



363 



Common Lot, The (Herrick), 353. 

Common Sense (Paine), 68. 

Common Way, The (Deland), 338. 

Compensation (Emerson), 168. 

Compleat Angler, The (Walton), 265. 

Conciliation with America (Burke), 
70. 

Concord Days (Alcott), 155. 

Concord Hymn, The (Emerson), 
170. 

Concord and Merrimack Rivers, A 
Week on the (Thoreau), 180, 182. 

Concord, Mass., the Alcotts, 155; 
Margaret Fuller, Hawthorne, 
Emerson, 164; Thoreau, 177; 
Hawthorne, 190. 

Concord, N. H., 242. 

Cone, Helen Gray, 330. 

Confessions of an English Opium 
Eater (De Quincey), 98. 

Confident To-morrow, A (Matthews), 
342. 

Congratulation, The (Odell), 72. 

Coniston (Churchill), 348. 

Connecticut Yankee in King Ar- 
thur's Court (Clemens), 308. 

Conqueror Worm, The (Poe), 214. 

Conquest of Canaan (Dwight), 74. 

Conquest of Canaan, The (Tark- 
ington), 350. 

Conquest of Mexico, The (Prescott), 
281. 

Conquest of Peru, The (Prescott), 
281. 

Conspiracy of Pontiac, The (Park- 
man), 284. 

Constitution of the United States, 70. 

Contemplations (Bradstreet), 38. 

Contemporaries (Higginson), 327. 

Contemporary Fiction, 335. 

Contentment (Holmes), 272. 

Continental Congress, 67. 

Contrast, The (Tyler), 84. 

Conversations on Some of the Old 
Poets (Lowell), 257. 

Cook, Ebenezer, 49. 

Cooke, John Esten, 303. 

Cooper, James Fenimore, 119; at 
Yale, 120; on shipboard, 120; 
Precaution, 122; The Spy, 122; 
The Pioneers, 123; The Pilot, 
123; Lionel Lincoln, 124; The 
Last of the Mohicans, 124; The 
Prairie, 124; The Wept of Wish- 
ton-Wish, 124; The Water-Witch, 
124; The Bravo, 124; The Heiden- 
mauer, 124; The Headsman, 124; 
The Monikins, 124; Homeward 



Bound, 125 ; Home as Found, 125 ; 
Satanstoe, 12f ; The Chainbearer, 
125 ; The Redskins, 125 ; The Cra- 
ter, 125; Jack Tier, 125; The Oak 
Openings 1125 ; The Sea Lions, 125 ; 
The Ways of the Hour, 125; The 
Pathfinder, 125; Mercedes of Cas- 
tile, 125; TheDeerslayer, 125; The 
Two Admirals, 125; Wing-and- 
Wing, 125 ; Wyandotte, 125 ; Afloat 
and Ashore, 125; Miles Walling- 
ford, 125 ; United States Navy, 
125; personal traits, 125; The 
Leather Stocking Tales, 126; 
merits as a novelist, 127; sugges- 
tions for reading, 128 ; mentioned, 
95, 97, 98, 100, 138, 198, 211, 302, 
303. 

Cooper, James Fenimore (Louns- 
bury), 329. 

Coquette, The (Foster), 86. 

Coral Grove, The (Percival), 102. 

Corn (Lanier), 318, 320. 

Cosmopolitan Magazine, 340. 

Cotter's Saturday Night, The (Burns), 
246. 

Cotton, John, 23, 150. 

Cotton Boll, The (Timrod), 314. 

Count Frontenac and New France 
(Parkman), 284. 

Country Doctor, A (Jewett), 337. 

Country of the Pointed Firs, The 
(Jewett), 337. 

County Road, The (Brown), 338. 

Courtin', The (Lowell), 262. 

Courtship of Miles Standish (Long- 
fellow), 226. 

CowPER, William, 132, 135. 

Crane, Stephen, 344. 

Crater, The (Cooper), 125. 

Crawford, Francis Marion, 342. 

Crawfordsville, Ind., 313. 

Crisis, The (Churchill), 348. 

Crisis, The (Paine), 69. 

Critical Period of American His- 
tory, The (Fiske), 286. 

Critical Reviews, Poe's, 206, 210. 

Criticismand Fiction (Howells), 336. 

Croakers, The, 100. 

Cross of Snow, The (Longfellow), 
226. 

Crossing, The (Churchill), 348. 

Crothers, Samuel M., 328. 

Cudjo's Cave (Trowbridge), 340. 

Culprit Fay, The (Drake), 100. 

Cummington, Mass., birthplace of 
Bryant, 128. 

Cummins, Maria S., 305. 



364 



INDEX 



Curfew (Longfellow), 231. 

Curtis, George William, 153, 

290, 292-294. 
Custom- House, The (Hawthorne), 

192, 199. 

Daisy Miller (James), 337. 
Damnation of Theron Ware, The 

(Frederic), 342. 
Dana, Charles A., 153, 154. 
Dana, Richard Henry, 95, 97, 101. 
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., 101, 

268. 
Dante, 297, 310. 
Dante (Lowell), 266. 
Dante, Longfellow's translation of, 

292 ; Parson's translation of, 311. 
Dante's Divine Comedy, Norton's 

translation of, 329. 
Dartmouth College, Webster, 288. 
Davis, Richard Harding, 343. 
Day is Done, The (Longfellow), 231. 
Day of Doom, The (Wigglesworth), 

39. 
Deacon's Masterpiece, The (Holmes), 

272, 276. 
Dead House, The (Lowell), 261. 
Declaration of Independence, The, 69. 
Deephaven, (Jewett), 337. 
Deerslayer, The (Cooper), 125, 127. 
Defoe, Daniel, 53, 119, 211. 
Deland, Margaret Wade, 338. 
Deliverance, The (Glasgow), 348. 
Democracy (Lowell), 264. 
Descendant, The (Glasgow), 348. 
Descent into the Maelstrom (Poe), 

211. 
Description of New England, A 

(Smith), 12. 
Deserted Village, The (Goldsmith), 

246. 
Deserter, The (King), 350. 
Devil and Tom Walker, The (Irv- 
ing), 111. 
Devil in the Belfry, The (Poe), 213. 
Dial, The, 152, 170, 182, 256. 
Dialogue between Dr. Franklin and 

the Gout, 62 . 
Diamond Wedding, The (Stedman), 

324. 
Diaries: Sewall's, 45; Madam 

Knight's, 46; Byrd's, 47. 
Dickens, Charles, 119, 211, 309. 
Dickinson, Emily, 312. 
Discoverer of the North Cape, The 

(Longfellow), 231. 
Divine Comedy, The (Longfellow), 

226. 



Divine Tragedy, The (Longfellow), 
227. 

Dixie (Pike), 313. 

Dr. Claudius (Crawford), 343. 

Dr. Grimshawe's Secret (Hawthorne), 
197. 

Dr. Heidegger's Experiment (Haw- 
thorne), 188, 198. 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Steven- 
son), 212. 

Dr. Sevier (Cable), 346. 

Doc Home (Ade) , 350. 

Dolliver Romance, The (Hawthorne), 
196, 197. 

Dolph Heyliger (Irving), 111. 

Domain of Arnheim, The (Poe), 213. 

Donne, John, 36. 

Dorchester, Mass., 27. 

Dorothy Q. (Holmes), 268. 

Dorr, Julia C. R., 330. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 289. 

Drake, Joseph Rodman, 95, 100. 

Drama, beginnings of, 84. 

Dramas (Hillhouse), 103. 

Drayton, Michael, 2, 8. 

Dream-Land (Poe), 214. 

Dream Life (Mitchell), 294. 

Dred (Stowe) , 306. 

Drum-Taps (Whitman), 299. 

Dryden, John, 8, 31, 72. 

Dudley, Thomas, 35. 

Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 334. 

Dutchman's Fireside, The (Pauld- 
ing), 98, 99. 

DwiGHT, Timothy, 74. 

Dying Raven, The (Dana), 101. 

Eagle's Heart, The (Garland) , 352. 
Earth's Holocaust (Hawthorne), 199. 
East A7}gels (Woolson), 350. 
Economist, The, 352. 
Edgar Huntley (Brown), 87, 89. 
Education in Virginia, 10; in New 

England, 13. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 49-51, 75. 
Eggleston, Edward, 348. 
Eight Cousins (Alcott), 156. 
Eighteenth Century, Chronological 

Review, 93. 
Eldorado (Taylor), 291. 
Eliot, George, 119. 
Eliot, John, 26, 33, 99. 
Elizabethan age, literary climax 

of, 2. 
Elm Island Stories, The, 341. 
Elsie Venner (Holmes), 273. 
Emancipation Proclamation, 173. 
Embargo, The (Bryant), 130. 



INDEX 



365 



Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Youth 
and education, 158 ; school 
teacher, 159 ; Good-bye, proud 
world ! I 'm going home, 159 ; theo- 
logy, 160; first European visit, 
160 ; acquaintances in England, 
161; Concord, 161; Nature, 164; 
The American Scholar, 165; 
the lyceum, 167; the lectures, 
167; Essays, First Series, 168; 
Essays, Second Series, 169; Re- 
presentative Men, 169; English 
Traits, 169; the poet, 170; in 
war-time, 172; later life and 
work, 173; Natural History 
of Intellect, 173; Society and 
Solitude, 173; Letters and Social 
Aims, 173 ; Parnassus, 173 ; 
last journeys, 174; declining 
strength, 174; estimate of work, 
175 ; suggestions for reading, 176 ; 
mentioned, 149, 152, 154, 177, 
178, 179, 190, 196, 229, 234. 241, 
248, 254. 298. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (Hale), 327. 

Enfield, 50. 

English classic poeis, 75. 

English in Virginia, the, 1-10. 

English Lands, Letters and Kings 
(Mitchell), 294. 

English Note-Books (Hawthorne), 
197. 

English Novel, The (Lanier), 318. 

English parliamentarians, 70. 

English Traits (Emerson), 169. 

English university graduates in the 
colonies, 22. 

English writers contemporary with 
the Virginia colony, 2. 

Equality (Bellamy), 340. 

Essay on Milton (Macaulay), 98. 

Essays, First Series (Emerson), 168. 

Essays, Second Series (Emerson), 
169. 

Essays of Elia (Lamb), 98. 

Essays to do Good (Mather), 
30, 53, 57. 

Estimate of Emerson's work, 176. 

Ethan Brand (Hawthorne), 198. 

European judgment of Poe, 210. 

Eutaw Springs (Freneau), 81. 

Evangeline (Longfellow), 223, 224. 

Evening Wind, The CBryant), 139. 

Everett, Edward, 289. 

Every Saturday, 322. 

Excelsior (Longfellow), 223. 

Experience (Emerson), 169. 

Expiation (French), 351. 



Fable for Critics. A (Lowell), 259. 
Faerie Queene (Spenser), 188, 254. 
Fair God, The (Wallace), 349. 
Fairfax (Cooke), 304. 
Faith Gartney's Girlhood (Whitney), 

341. 
Fall of the House of Usher, The (Poe) , 

213. 
Fancy's Show Box (Hawthorne), 

188, 199. 
Fanny (Halleck), 99. 
Fanshawe (Hawthorne), 187, 197. 
Farewell Address (Washington), 71. 
Farm Ballads (Carleton), 330. 
Farmer Refuted, The (Hamilton), 

67. 
Father, The, or American Shandy- 
ism (Dunlap), 85. 
Father Abraham's Speech (Frank- 
lin), 60. 
Faust, Taylor's translation of, 292. 
Fawcett, Edgar, 342. 
Federalist, The, 69. 
Fenris the Wolf (MacKaye), 334. « 
Feu de Joie, The (Odell), 72. 
Fiction, Idealistic, 339. 
Field, Eugene, 331. 
Fielding, Henry, 119. 
Fields, James T., 246, 327, 330, 

336. 
Fields, Mrs. James T., 248, 330. 
Fighting Chance, The (Chambers), 

344. 
Fire-Bringer, The (Moody), 334. 
Fireside Travels (Lowell), 261. 
First American novel, the, 85. 
First American play, the, 84. 
First Church in Boston, 157. 
First Discovery and Settlement of 

Virginia (Stith), 48. 
First English book produced in 

America, 4. 
First Snowfall, The (Lowell), 260. 
FisKE, John, 286. 
Flower and Thorn (Aldrich), 322. 
Flowers (Longfellow), 222. 
Fool's Errand, A (Tourgge), 347. 
FooTE, Mary Hallock, 350. 
Footsteps of Angels (Longfellow), 

222. 
For Annie (Poe), 209, 214. 
For Whittier's Seventieth Birthday 

(Holmes), 277. 
Ford, Paul Leicester, 344. 
Foregone Conclusion, A (Howells), 

336. 
Forest Hymn, A (Bryant), 138, 145. 
Fort McHenry, 103. 



366 



INDEX 



Fortunes of Oliver Home, The 
(Smith), 347. 

Four Elements, The (Bradstreet), 
36. 

Four Monarchies, The (Bradstreet), 
36. 

Four Seasons, The (Bradstreet), 36. 

Fox, 70. 

Fox, John, Jr., 345. 

Francesco da Rimini (Boker), 295. 

Franklin (Sparks), 286. 

Franklin, Benjamin. Birth, and 
boyhood, 52; habits of study, 
53; the newspaper, 54; arrival in 
Philadelphia, 55; in England, 55; 
the Junto, 56 ; practical benefi- 
cence, 56 ; a man of letters, 57 ; 
The Almanac, 58; "Poor Rich- 
ard," 58; ^w<o6zograp/i2/, 60 ; char- 
acteristics of his literary work, 62 ; 
service to the country, 62 ; scholar 
and scientist, 64; the Franklin 
Union, 65; mentioned, 30, 52, 
• 306. 

Franklin Union, The, 65. 

Frederic, Harold, 342. 

Free Press, 238. 

Freedom of the Will, The (Edwards), 
51, 75. 

Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins, 338. 

Freeman's Oath, The, 33. 

French, Alice, 351. 

French and Italian Note-Books 
(Hawthorne), 197. 

Freneau, Philip, 81, 95. 

Fresh Fields (Burroughs), 328. 

Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book 
(Aldrich), 322. 

"Friendly Club," The, 87. 

Friendship (Emerson), 168. 

Fruit of the Tree, The (Wharton), 
343. 

Fuller, Henry Blake, 351. 

Fuller, Margaret, 156, 164, 191, 
268. 

Furness, Horace Howard, 327. 

Garland, Hamlin, 352. 

Garrison of Cape Ann, The (Whit- 
tier), 244. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 154, 
239, 242. 

Gates Ajar, The (Ward), 337. 

Gates Between, The (Ward), 338. 

Gayarre, Charles Stienne, 286. 

General History of Virginia, A 
(Smith), 6. 

General Magazine, The, 90. 



General's Double, The (King), 350. 

Genius, Lanier's, 320. 

Gentle Boy, The (Hawthorne), 188, 

198. 
Gentleman from Indiana, The (Tark- 

ington). 349. 
"Geoffrey Crayon," 111. 
George III, 66. 
George IV, 113. 
George Washington Jones (Stuart). 

346. 
Gettysburg, Lincoln's speech at, 

290. 
Gibbon, 280. 
Gifts (Emerson), 169. 
Gilded Age, The (Warner), 294, 

308. 
Gilder, Richard Watson, 329. 
Gladiator, The (Bird), 303. 
Gladstone, William E., 70. 
Glasgow, Ellen A. G., 348. 
Goddess of Reason, The (Johnston), 

348. 
Godwin, William, 89. 
Goethe, 151, 224, 292. 
Gold Bug, The (Poe), 207, 212. 
Golden Era, The, 309. 
Golden House, The (Warner), 295. 
Golden Legend, The (Longfellow), 

224, 227, 232. 
Golden Wedding and Other Tales, A 

(Stuart), 346. 
Goldsmith, Oliver, 75, 111, 116, 

246. 
Good-bye my Fancy (Whitman), 

301. 
Good-bye, proud world! I'm going 

home (Emerson), 159. 
Goodale, Dora Read, 330. 
Goodrich, S. G., 187. 
Gospel of Freedom, The (Herrick), 

353. 
Graham's Magazine, 207, 256. 
Grandfather's Chair (Hawthorne), 

192. 
Grandissimes, The (Cable), 346. 
Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill 

Battle (Holmes), 276. 
Grant, Robert, 340. 
Graustark (McCutcheon), 350. 
Grave, The (Blair). 132. 
Gray Champion, The (Hawthorne), 

188, 198. 
Gray, Thomas, 83. 
Graysons, The (Eggleston), 349. 
Great Awakening of 1734-44, 51, 

150. 
Great Barrington, Mass., 133. 



INDEX 



367 



Great Carbuncle, The (Hawthorne), 

188. 
Great Divide, The (Moody), 334. 
Great Procession, The (Spofford), 

339. 
Great Stone Face, The (Hawthorne), 

198. 
Greeley, Horace, 154, 156, 182, 

324. 
Green River (Bryant), 97, 137, 144. 
Greenfield Hill (Dwight), 75. 
Greifenstein (Crawford), 343. 
Griggsby's Station (Riley), 331. 
Guardian Angel, The (Holmes), 273. 
Guenn (Howard), 339. 
Guerndale (Stimson), 340. 
Guilford, Conn., 99. 
GuiNEY, Louise Imogen, 330. 
Gunnar (Boyesen), 342. 
Guy Rivers (Simms), 303. 

"H. H."311. 

Hail Columbia (Hopkinson), 78. 
Hale, Edward Everett, 256, 327; 

340. 
Hale, Nathan, 79. 
Hale in the Bush, 79. 
Half -Century of Conflict, A (Park- 
man), 284. 
Hallam, 113. 
Halleck, Fitz Greene, 95, 97, 99, 

138. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 69, 70, 138. 
Hampton Beach (Whittier), 244. 
Hancock, John, 67. 
Hannah Thurston (Taylor), 291. 
Hannibal, Mo., 307. 
Hans Breitmann's Ballads (Leland), 

307. 
Hardy, Arthur Sherburne, 339. 
Harper's Magazine, 115, 293, 336. 
Harris, Joel Chandler, 344. 
Harte, Bret, 308, 309. 
Hartford founded, 22, 294, 306, 

323. 
Hartford Wits, The, 73. 
Harvard, John, 13. 
Harvard College, founded, 13; in 

the Unitarian movement, 150; 

Emerson, 158; Thoreau, 178; 

Longfellow, 222; Lowell, 254; 

Holmes, 269. 
Hasty Pudding (Barlow), 74. 
Haunted Palace, The (Poe), 214. 
Haverhill, Mass., birthplace of 

Whittier, 234. 
Haverhill Gazette, 239. 
Haworth's (Burnett), 346. 



Hawthorne, influenced by Charles 
Brockden Brown, 88. 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Child- 
hood, 183; at Bowdoin College, 
184 ; class-mates, 184 ; Salem, 186 ; 
Fanshawe, 187; sketches and 
short stories, 187; Twice-Told 
Tales, 187; correspondence with 
Longfellow, 188; in Boston Cus- 
tom House, 189; Brook Farm, 
189; American Note Books, 190; 
' Blithedale Romance, 190; mar- 
riage, 190; the "Old Manse," 
190; second collection of Twice- 
Told Tales, 190; Journal of an 
African Cruiser, 190; Mosses 
from an Old Manse, 190 ; in Salem 
Custom House, 191; The Scarlet 
Letter, 191 ; The Custom House, 
192; at Lenox, 192; The House of 
the Seven Gables, 192; Grand- 
father's Chair, 192; Biographical 
Stories, 192; Wonder Book, 193; 
Tanglewood Tales, 193; The 
Blithedale Romance, 193; consul- 
ship at Liverpool, 193; in Italy, 
193; The Marble Faun, 194; 
closing years, 195; Our Old 
Home, 196; death, 196; after 
publications, 197; place in liter- 
ature, 197; suggestions for read- 
ing, 199; authorities, 199; men- 
tioned, 149, 153, 161, 164, 175, 
176, 211, 220, 234, 241, 256, 292, 
295. 

Hay, John, 312. 

Hayne, Paul H., 313, 314, 315. 

Hayne, Robert Y., 315. 

Hazard of New Fortunes, A (How- 
ells), 336. 

Headsman, The (Cooper), 124. 

Heart of Toil, The (French), 351. 

Heartsease and Rue (Lowell), 263. 

Heathen Chinee, The (Harte), 309. 

Heidenmauer, The (Cooper), 124. 

Height of the Ridiculous, The 
(Holmes), 269. 

Hellfer Sartain (Fox), 345. 

Henry, Patrick, 67. 

Her Mountain Lover (Garland), 
352. 

Herbert, George, 36. 

Hermann und Dorothea (Goethe), 
224. 

Heroes and Hero Worship (Carlyle), 
169. 

Heroism (Emerson), 168. 

Herrick, Robert, 317, 352. 



368 



INDEX 



Hesper (Garland), 352. 

Hexameters, in Evangeline, 224. 

HiGGiNSON, Thomas Wentworth, 
327. 

HiLDRETH, Richard, 286. 

HiLLHOUSE, James Abraham, 103. 

His Daughter First (Hardy), 340. 

His Father's Son (Matthews), 342. 

Historical Collections (Burton), 53. 

History (Emerson), 168. 

History of American Literature in 
Colonial Times (Tyler), 329. 

History of Ferdinand and Isabella 
(Prescott), 281. 

History of New England (Palfrey), 
286. 

History of New Enaland (Winthrop) , 
16. 

History of Plimouth Plantation 
(Winslow and Bradford), 14. 

History of the American Theatre, 
85. 

History of the Dividing Line, The 
(Byrd), 47. 

History of the United Netherlands 
(Motley), 282. 

History of the United States (Ban- 
croft), 285. 

History of the United States (Hil- 
dreth), 286. 

History of the United States Navy 
(Cooper), 125. 

History of the World (Raleigh), 36. 

History of Virginia (Beverley), 48. 

Hobomok (Child), 304. ^ 

Hoffman, Charles Fenno, 103. 

Holland, Josiah Gilbert, 293. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Child- 
hood, 268; Dorothy Q., 268; edu- 
cation, 268; early productions, 
269; medicine, 270; Poems, 270; 
The Autocrat of the Breakfast- 
Table, 271 ; The Professor at the 
Breakfast-Table, 272; The Poet 
at the Breakfast-Table, 272 ; 
Soundings from the Atlantic, 272 ; 
Elsie Venner, 273; The Guardian 
Angel, 273; A Mortal Antipathy, 
273 ; biographies of Motley and 
of Emerson, 273 ; later life, 274 ; 
Over the Tea-cups, 274; the poet, 
276 ; death, 277 ; authorities, 278 ; 
mentioned, 154, 164, 166, 176, 
196, 225, 248, 259, 306. 

Home as Found (Cooper), 125. 

Home Ballads (Whittier), 244. 

Home Journal, 103, 322. 

Home, Sweet Home (Payne), 120. 



I Homer, 297. 
Homer, Bryant's translation of, 

292. 
Homeward Bound (Cooper), 125. 
Honorable Peter Stirling, The (Ford), 

344. 
Hood, Thomas, 307. 
Hooker, Thomas, 22. 
Hoosier Schoolmaster, The (Eggles- 

ton), 348. 
Hope Leslie (Sedgwick), 304. 
Hop-Frog (Poe), 213. 
Hopkinson, Francis, 77. 
HoPKiNSON, Joseph, 78. 
Horse-Shoe Robinson (Kennedy), 

302. 
•• Hosea Biglow," 258. 
House at High Bridge, The (Faw- 

cett), 342. 
House of a Thousand Candles 

(Nicholson), 350. 
House of Mirth, The (Wharton), 

343. 
House of Night, The (Freneau), 

83. 
House of the Seven Gables, The 

(Hawthorne), 192, 198. 
HovEY, Richard, 333. 
Hoiv Love looked for Hell (Lanier), 

318. 
How Old Brown Took Harper's 

Ferry (Stedman), 324. 
How the Old Horse Won the Bet 

(Holmes), 276. 
Howadji in Syria, The (Curtis), 292. 
Howard, Blanche Willis, 339. 
Howe, Julia Ward, 311. 
Howells, William D., 322, 329, 

334, 335. 
Huckleberry Finn (Clemens), 308. 
Hudibras (Butler), 73. 
Hudson, Henry N., 327. 
Hugh Wynne (Mitchell), 341. 
Humble-Bee, The (Emerson), 171. 
Humble Romance, A (Freeman) , 338. 
Humorous Poems (Holmes), 276. 
Hunter of Men, The (Whittier), 242. 
Hutchinson, Ellen M., 325. 
HuTTON, Laurence, 328. 
Hymn of Trust (Holmes), 276. 
Hymn to Death, A (Bryant), 97, 

136, 145. 
Hymn to Night (Longfellow), 222. 
Hymns of the Marshes (Lanier), 

320. 
Hymns to the Gods (Pike), 313. 
Hyperion (Longfellow), 221, 222, 

223. 



INDEX 



369 



/ love thy Kingdom, Lord (Dwight), 
75. 

Ichabod (Whittier), 244, 288. 

Identity (Aldrich), 322. 

Idle Man, The, 101, 137. 

"Ik Marvel," 294. 

Illustrative Passages: Drayton, 2, 
8; Strachey, 6; Gov. Berkeley, 
10; Gov. Bradford, 14; Gov. 
Winthrop, 16; William Wood, 19; 
Thomas Shepard, 23; Nathaniel 
Ward, 24; Mather's Magnalia, 
30, 31 ; The Bay Psalm Book, 34; 
Anne Bradstreet, 38, 39; Michael 
Wlgglesworth, 40; Samuel Se- 
wall, 45 ; The Sot Weed Factor, 49 ; 
Jonathan Edwards, 51 ; Benjamin 
Franklin, 60 ; Jonathan Odell, 71, 
72 ; John Trumbull, 73 ; Joel Bar- 
low, 74 ; Revolutionary Songs and 
Ballads, 75-77, 79; Philip Fre- 
neau, 82 ; Washington Irving, 1 16 ; 
William Cullen Bryant, 133, 135, 
136, 142, 143, 144, 145; Ralph 
Waldo Emerson, 159, 165, 166, 
168, 170, 171, 172, 179; Henry 
David Thoreau, 180, 181; Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne, 184, 190; 
Edgar Allan Poe, 209, 214; 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 
218, 221, 222, 226, 228, 229, 230; 
John Greenleaf Whittier, 237, 
238, 245, 247, 249, 251, 252; 
James Russell Lowell, 253, 258, 
259, 260, 262; Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, 271, 272, 277; Walt 
Whitman, 298, 300; Henry 
Timrod, 314; Sidney Lanier, 
319; Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 322. 

Illustrious Providences (Mather), 28. 

Imagery, Longfellow's, 230. 

In Cure of her Soul (Stimson), 340. 

Incident in a Railway Car, An 
(Lowell), 257. 

Indian Burying-ground (Freneau), 
83. 

Indian Student, The (Freneau), 
83. 

Indiana novelists, The, 348. 

Indians, English attitude towards, 
26. 

Influence, Whitman's, 302. 

In His Name (Hale), 340. 

In Ole Virginia (Page), 345. 

Innocents Abroad (Clemens), 308. 

Inscription for the Entrance to a 
Wood (Bryant), 97, 134, 135, 137. 

Intellect (Emerson), 168. 



Interjiaiional Episode, An (James), 
337. 

In the Clouds (Murfree), 345. 

In the Harbor (Longfellow), 227. 

In the Levant (Warner), 295. 

In the Palace of the King (Crawford), 
343. 

In the Tennessee Mountains (Mur- 
free), 345. 

In War Time (Whittier), 245. 

Ipswich, Mass., 24. 

Iron Gate, The (Holmes), 276, 277. 

Irving, Peter, 106. 

Irving (Warner), 295. 

Irving, Washington. Education, 
105; his study of law, 106; first 
contributions to literature, 166; 
first European journey, 100; 
Salmagundi, 107; Knickerbocker 
History of New York, 107; at- 
tachment to Matilda Hoffman, 
107; significance of Knicker- 
bocker, 109; reception of Knick- 
erbocker, 109; in business, 109; 
second voyage to Europe, 110; 
failure in business, 110; The 
Sketch-Book, 110 ; Bracebridge 
Hall, 111; The Tales of a Trav- 
eller, 111; Spanish history and 
romance. 111; Columbus, 112; 
Companions of Columbus, 112; 
Conquest of Granada, 112; The 
Alhambra, 112; appointed Secre- 
tary of Legation at London, 112; 
awarded Royal Society of Litera- 
ture medal, 113; Oxford confers 
degree, 113; returns to America, 
113; Tour of the Prairies, 113; 
Sunnyside, 113; declines nomina- 
tions to public office, 1 14 ; yl bbots- 
ford and Newstead Abbey, 114; 
Legends of the Conquest of Spain, 
114; Astoria, 114; Adventures of 
Captain Bonneville, 114; contrib- 
utes to the Knickerbocker Maga- 
zine, 114; abandons to Prescott 
project of writing history of con- 
quest of Mexico, 114; minister to 
Spain, 115; Life of Goldsmith 
115; Mahomet and his Successors 
115; Life of Washington, 115; de 
scribed by G. W. Curtis, 115 
death, 116; mentioned, 95, 97, 98 
127, 198, 211, 218, 221, 263, 281 
306. 

Irving, William, 107. 

Israfel (Poe), 214, 204. 

Italian Journeys (Howells) , 335. 



370 



INDEX 



Jack Hazard and His Fortunes 

(Trowbridge), 341. 
Jack the Fisherman (Ward), 338. 
Jack Tier (Cooper), 125. 
Jackson, Helen Fiske, 311. 
James I, 2. 

James, Henry, 192, 336. 
Jamestown founded , 2 . 
Jan Vedder's Wife (Barr), 342. 
Jane Field (Freeman), 338. 
Jane Talbot (Brown), 87. 
Janice Meredith (Ford), 344. 
Jason Edwards (Garland), 352. 
Jay, John, 69. 

Jeanne d'Arc (MacKaye), 334. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 67, 69, 71, 

130, 202. 
Jerome (Freeman), 338. 
Jerry the Dreamer (Payne), 352. 
Jesuits in North America (Park- 
man), 284. 
Jewel (Burnham), 339. 
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 248, 337. 
Joan of Arc (Clemens), 308. 
John Bodewin's Testimony (Foote), 

351. 
John Godfrey's Fortunes (Taylor), 

291. 
John Ward, Preacher (Deland), 338. 
Johns Hopkins- University, 324. 
Johnston, Mary, 347. 
Johnston, Richard Malcolm, 344. 
"Jonathan Oldstyle," 106. 
Jones, John Paul, 77. 
JoNSON, Ben, 2, 317. 
Jo's Boys (Alcott), 156. 
" Josh Billings," 307. 
Josh Billings' Farmer's Almanac 

(Shaw), 307. 
Journal (Woolman), 71. 
Journal of an African Cruiser 

(Hawthorne), 190. 
"J. S. of Dale," 340. 
JuDD, Sylvester, 304. 
Judith of Bethuita (Aldrich), 323. 
Julian (Cooke), 304. 
Junto, the, 56. 

Jupiter Lights (Woolson), 350. 
Justice and Expediency (Whittier), 

242. 
Juvenile fiction, 341. 

Kalevala, The, 225. 

Katharine Walton (Simms), 303. 

Katherine Lauderdale (Crawford), 

343. 
Kathrina (Holland), 294. 
Kavanagh (Longfellow), 223. 



Kearney at Seven Pines (Stedman), 
324. 

Keats, John, 97. 

Keats (Longfellow), 232. ] 

Kellogg, Elijah, 341. 

Kennedy, John P., 302. 

Kentuckians, The (Fox), 345. 

Kentucky Cardinal, A (Allen), 345. 

Keramos, and Other Poems (Long- 
fellow), 227. 

Key, Francis Scott, 103. 

Khaled (Crawford), 343. 

Kiddthe Pirate (Irving), 111. 

King, Charles, 350. 

King, Grace Elizabeth, 346. 

King Noanett (Stimson), 340. 

King Witlaf's Drinking-Hom (Long- 
fellow), 231. 

King's Jackal, The (Davis), 344. 

Kinsmen, The (Simms), 303. 

Kirk, Ellen Olney, 339. 

Knee-Deep in June (Riley), 331. 

Knickerbocker group. The, 94. 

Knickerbocker History of New York, 
97, 107-109, 306. 

Knickerbocker Magazine, 103, 114, 
115. 

Knight, Sarah Kemble, 46. 

Knitters in the Sun (French), 351. 

Koningsmarke (Paulding), 99. 

La Salle (Parkman), 284. 

Lady of Fort St. John, The (Cather- 
wood), 351. 

Lady of Quality, A (Burnett), 346. 

Lady of Rome, A (Crawford), 343. 

Lady or the Tiger, The (Stockton), 
341. 

Lakeside (Whittier), 244. 

Lamb, Charles, 71, 293. 

Lamplighter, The (Cummins), 304. 

Landor's Cottage (Poe), 213. 

Lanier, Sidney. Army experiences, 
316 ; the musician, 317 ; literature 
and poetry, 317; lectureship in 
Johns Hopkins University, 318; 
books for boys, 318; death, 320; 
genius, 320; mentioned, 313, 315. 

Larcom, Lucy, 248. 

Lars (Taylor), 291. 

Last Leaf, The (Holmes), 269. 

Last of the Mohicans, The (Cooper), 
124, 127. 

Last Refuge, The (Fuller), 352. 

Last Songs from Vagabondia (Car- 
man and Hovey), 333. 

Last Walk in Autumn, The (Whit- 
tier), 244. 



INDEX 



371 



Launcelot and Guenevere (Hovey), 
333. 

Laus Deo (Whittier), 245. 

Lay of the Last Minstrel, The (Scott), 
98. 

Lay of the Scotch Fiddle, The (Pauld- 
ing), 98. 

Lays of My Home (Whittier), 244. 

Lazarre (Catherwood), 351. 

Leah and Rachel (Hammond), 10. 

Leaves from Margaret Smith's jour- 
nal (Whittier), 245. 

Leaves of Grass (Whitman), 297, 
301. 

Led Horse Claim, The (Foote), 351. 

Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The (Irv- 
ing), 110. 

Legends and Lyrics (Hayne), 315. 

Legends of New England (Whittier), 
240. 

Legends of the Conquest of Spain 
(Irving), 114. 

Legends of the Province House (Haw- 
thorne), 199. 

Leland, Charles Godfrey , 307. 

Lenore (Poe), 204. 

Leslie Goldthwaite (Whitney), 341. 

Letters (Adams), 71. 

Letters (Washington), 71. 

Letters and Social Aims (Emerson), 
173. 

Letters from the Far East (Bryant), 
140. 

Letters of a Traveller (Bryant), 140. 

Letters: of Lowell, Emerson, Car- 
lyle, and Ruskin, 329. 

Lewis, Matthew, 89. 

Lewis Rand (Johnston), 348. 

Leyden, 11. 

Library of American Biography 
(Sparks), 286. 

Library of American Literature 
(Stedman and Hutchinson), 325. 

Life of Goldsmith (Irving), 115. 

Life of John of Barneveld (Motley), 
282. 

Life of Lincoln (Howells), 335. 

Life of Schiller (Carlyle), 161. 

Life of Washington (Irving), 115. 

Life of Washington (Paulding), 99. 

Life on the Mississippi (Clemens), 
308. 

Ligeia (Poe), 213. 

Light of Stars, The (Longfellow), 
222. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 289, 312. 

Lincoln, Emerson's tribute to, 173. 

Lincoln, Lowell's tribute to, 283. 



Lincoln (Markham), 332. 

Linwood (Sedgwick), 304. 

Lionel Lincoln (Cooper), 124. 

Lippincott's Magazine, 318. 

Litchfield, Conn., 305. 

Literary Conditions in Virginia, 10. 

Literary Development of New Eng- 
land, 149. 

Literary History of the American 
Revolution, The (Tyler), 329. 

Literary Magazine and American 
Register, The, 88. 

Literary Recreations (Whittier), 245. 

Literary Values (Burroughs), 328. 

Literature of the Age of Elizabeth 
(Whipple), 326. 

Literature and Life (Whipple), 326. 

Little Beach- Bird, The (Dana), 101. 

Little Book of Western Verse, A 
(Field), 331. 

Little Boy Blue (Field), 331. 

Little Journey in the World, A, 
(Warner), 295. 

LUtle Lord Fauntleroy (Burnett), 
346. 

Little Men (Alcott), 156. 

Little Norsk, A (Garland). 352. 

Little Orphant Annie (Riley), 331. 

Little Renault, The (Catherwood), 
351. 

Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, 
The (Fox), 345. 

Little Women, (Alcott), 156. 

Living Temple, The (Holmes), 272. 

Local Types, Studies of, 337. 

Locke, David Ross, 307. 

Locusts and Wild Honey (Bur- 
roughs), 328. 

Loiter ings of Travel (Willis), 104. 

Longfellow. Youth, 217; My 
Lost Youth, 218 ; at Bowdoin Col- 
lege, 218; acquaintance with 
Hawthorne, 220; literary am- 
bitions, 220; travel and study, 
220; Outre-Mer, 221; the call to 
Harvard, 221 ; professor and poet, 
221; Hyperion, 222; Voices of 
the Night, 222 ; Ballads and Other 
Poerns, 223; poems on slavery, 
223; The Spanish Student, 223; 
The Poets and Poetry of Europe, 
223; The Belfry of Bruges and 
Other Poems, 223; Evangeline, 
223; Kavanagh, 223; The Seaside 
and the Fireside, 224; The Golden 
Legend, 224; Evangeline, 224; 
Hiawatha, 225; The Courtship 
of Miles Standish, 226 ; The Cross 



372 



INDEX 



of Snow; 226 ; The Divine Com- 
edy, 226; Tales of a Wayside 
Inn, 226 ; honors in England, 227 ; 
Christus, 227; The Masque of 
Pandora, and Other Poems, 227 ; 
Keramos, and Other Poems, 227 ; 
Ultima Thule, 227 ; In the Harbor, 
227; Michael Angela, 227; Mori- 
turi Salutamus, 227; last years, 
227; the poet and the children, 
228; The Bells of San Bias, 228; 
death, 228; poetic gifts, 229; sim- 
plicity, 229; beauty of imagery, 
230; skill in narrative, 231; lyric 
and dramatic poems, 231; trans- 
lations, 232; personality, 232; 
suggestions for reading, 233; 
mentioned, 149, 154, 176, 184, 
188, 196, 206, 211, 234, 241, 248, 
249, 254, 257, 265, 277. 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (Hig- 
ginson), 327. 

Looking Backward (Bellamy), 340. 

Lorraine (Chambers), 344. 

Lotus Eating (Curtis), 292. 

LouNSBURY, Thomas R., 329. 

Love (Emerson), 168. 

Love in Idleness (Kirk), 339. 

Low Tide on Grand Pre (Carman), 
333. 

Lowell Institute, The, 253, 261, 264. 

Lowell, James Russell. Elm- 
wood, 253; at Harvard College, 
254; choice of a profession, 256; 
first volume, 256; editorial ex- 
perience, 256; Poems, 257; Con- 
versations on Some of the Old 
Poets, 257; the abolitionist, 258; 
Stanzas on Freedom, 258; Wen- 
dell Phillips, 258; The Present 
Crisis, 258; satirist and humor- 
ist, 258; The Biglow Papers, 259; 
A Fable for Critics, 259; The 
Vision of Sir Launfal, 260 ; per- 
sonal experiences, 260; She came 
and Went, 260; The Changeling, 
260; The First Snowfall, 260; 
Palinode, 261 ; After the Burial, 
261; The Dead House, 261; lec- 
turer, professor, editor, 261 ; 
Among my Books, 261 ; My Study 
Windows, 261; Fireside Travels, 
261 ; Cambridge Thirty Years Ago, 
261; Biglow Papers, second 
series, 261; the civil war, 262-; 
The Washers of the Shroud, 262 ; 
On board the '76, 262; Harvard 
Commemoration Ode, 262; Under 



the Willows, 263; The Cathedral, 
263 ; Agassiz, 263 ; Under the Old 
Elm, 263 ; Three Memorial Poems, 
263; Heartsease and Rue, 263; 
diplomatic service, 263 ; Old Eng- 
lish Dramatists, 265; Political 
Addresses, 265; Our Literature, 
265; death, 265; his art, 265; 
general survey, 265; suggestions 
for reading, 266 ; authorities, 267 ; 
mentioned, 154; 176, 196, 211, 
223, 268, 270, 277, 293, 304, 306 
317, 328. 

Lowell, James Russell (Hale), 327. 

Luck of Roaring Camp, The (Harte), 
309. 

Lucy books. The, 341. 

Lucy Temple (Rowson), 86. 

Lunch, The (Aldrich), 322. 

Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth), 83. 

Lyrics for a Lute (Sherman), 332. 

Lyrics of Joy (Sherman), 332. 

Mabie, Hamilton Wright, 328. 

MacKaye, Percy Wallace, 334. 

Macon, Ga., 316. 

Madame Delphine (Cable), 346. 

Madison, James, 69. 

Madonna of the Tubs, The (Ward), 

338. 
Madrigals and Catches (Sherman), 

332. 
Magnolia Christi Americana (Ma- 
ther), 30, 41. 
Mahomet and his Successors (Irving), 

115. 
Maid He Married, The (Spofford), 

339. 
Maidenhood (Longfellow), 223. 
Main Street (Hawthorne), 199. 
Main Travelled Roads (Garland), 

352. 
Major, Charles, 350. 
"Major Jack Downing," 306. 
Maiden, Mass., 39. 
Man of the Hour, The (French), 351. 
Man with the Hoe, The (Markham), 

332. 
Man Without a Country, The (Hale), 

340. 
Manners (Emerson), 169. 
Marble Faun, The (Hawthorne), 

194, 198. 
March (Bryant), 138. 
Marcia (Kirk), 339. 
Marco Bozzaris (Halleck), 99, 101* 
Margaret (Judd), 304. 
Marjorie Daw (Aldrich), 323. 



INDEX 



373 



"Mark Twain," 307. 

Markham, Edwin, 332. 

Marlowe, Christopher, 2. 

Marlowe (Peabody), 334. 

Marmion (Scott), 81. 

Marsh Island, A (Jewett), 337. 

Marshes of Glynn, The (Lanier), 

318, 320. 
Martin Faber (Simms), 303. 
Maryland, Colony of, 10. 
Maryland, My Maryland (Randall), 

313. 
Masque of Judgment, The (Moody), 

334. 
Masque of Pandora, and Other 
I Poems (Longfellow), 227. 
Masque of the Gods, The (Taylor), 

291. 
Masque of the Red Death, The (Poe), 

213. 
MassaAusetts State Library, 16. 
Massachusetts to Virginia (Whit- 
tier), 2-42. 
Massacre of Scio (Bryant), 138. 
Mather, Cotton, 28-32, 41, 53, 

150. 
Mather, Increase, 28. 
Mather, Richard, 27, 33. 
Matthews, Brander, 329, 342. 
Maud Muller (Whittier), 244. 
Mayday, and Other Pieces (Emer- 
son), 170. 
May-Pole of Merrymount, The 

(Hawthorne), 188, 199. 
Mazzini, 156. 

McCutcheon, George Barr, 350. 
McFingal (Trumbull), 73. 
Meadow-Grass (Brown), 338. 
Meh Lady, Marse Cham (Page), 345. 
Mellichampe (Simms), 303. 
Melodious names, Poe's use of, 214. 
Melville, Herman, 304. 
Member of the Third House, A 

(Garland), 352. 
Memorable Providences (Mather), 

29. 
Memories (Whittier), 244. 
Memories of a Hundred Years (Hale) , 

327. 
Men, Women and Ghosts (Ward), 

337. 
Mercedes (Aldrich), 323. 
Mercedes of Castile (Cooper), 125. 
Merry Mount (Motley), 282. 
Merrymount, 20. 

Metamorphoses of Ovid (Sandys), 8. 
Michael Angelo (Longfellow), 227, 

232. 



Midnight Mass for the Dying Year 

(Longfellow), 2'?2. 
Mifflin, Lloyd, 330. 
Miles Wallingford (Cooper), 125. 
Miller, Harriet Mann, 328. 
Miller, Joaquin, 329. 
Milton, John, 25, 41. 
Milton (Longfellow), 232. 
Minister's Wooing, The (Stowe), 

306. 
Miss Gilbert's Career (Holland), 

294. 
Mr. Isaacs (Crawford), 343. 
Mr. Sa« (Payne), 352. 
Mitchell, Donald Grant, 294. 
Mitchell, Silas Weir, 341. 
Moby Dick (Melville), 304. 
Model of Christian Charity, A 

(Winthrop), 16. 
Modem Chivalry (Brackenridge) , 

86. 
Modern Instance, A (Howells), 336. 
Mogg Megone (Whittier), 244. 
Monadnoc (Emerson), 171. 
Money Captain, The (Payne), 352. 
Monikins, The (Cooper), 124. 
Monk, The, (Lewis), 89. 
Monsieur Beaucaire (Tarkington), 

34. 
Monsieur Motte (King), 346. 
Montcalm and Wolfe (Parkman), 

284. 
Monthly Anthology, 157. 
Monthly Magazine and American 

Review, The, 88. 
Monument Mountain (Bryant), 138. 
Moody, William Vaughn, 333. 
Moore, Thomas, 97. 
Moral Pieces (Sigourney), 102. 
More Songs from Vagabondia (Car- 
man and Hovey), 333. 
Morgesons, The (Stoddard), 295. 
Morituri Salutamus (Longfellow), 

227. 
Mormons, The (Browne), 307. 
Morning Chronicle, The, 106. 
Morris, George P., 102, 103. 
Mors Benefica (Stedman), 325. 
Mortal Antipathy, A (Holmes), 273. 
Morton's Hope (Motley), 282. 
Mosses from an Old Manse (Haw- 
thorne), 190. 
Motley, John Lothrop, 279, 281- 

283. 
Mountain Europa, A (Fox), 345. 
Moulton, Louise Chandler, 311. 
Mountain of the Lovers, The (Hayne), 

315. 



374 



INDEX 



Mrs. Partington, 307. 

MS. found in a Bottle (Poe), 211. 

Murders of the Rue Morgue (Poe), 

206, 212. 

MuRFREE, Mary Noailles, 345. 
Musketaquid (Emerson), 171. 
My Aunt (Holmes), 269. 
My Farm of Edgewood (Mitchell), 

294. 
My Garden (Emerson), 162. 
My Hunt after ''The Captain" 

(Holmes), 272. 
My Playmate (Whittier), 244. 
My Psalm (Whittier), 244. 
Mystery of Metropolisville, The 

(Eggleston), 349. 
My Study Windows (Lowell), 261. 
My Summer in a Garden (Warner) , 

294. 
My Winter on the Nile (Warner), 

295. 
Mysteries of Vdolpho, The (Rad- 

clitTe), 89. 
Mystery of Marie R^get, The (Poe), 

207, 212. 

Napoleon Jackson (Stuart), 346. 

Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym 
(Poe), 20n, 211. 

National Era, The, 305. 

National Lyrics (Whittier), 2'i-5. 

National Ode, The (Taylor), 291. 

Natural History of Intellect (Emer- 
son), 173. 

Nature, Bryant's inspiration from, 
146. 

Nature (Emerson), 164, 165. 

Nature, second essay (Emerson), 
169. 

Nature and Elements of Poetry, The 
(Stedman), 324. 

Nature in Emerson's poems, 171. 

Nature poetry, beginning of, 81. 

Neighbor Jackwood (Trowbridge), 
340. 

New American Cyclopaedia, 154. 

New Day, The (Gilder), 329. 

New England Boyhood, A (Hale), 
327. 

New England Chronicles, signifi- 
cance of the, 18. 

New England Courant, The, 51, 90." 

New England life, delineation of, 
337. 

New England Nun, A (Freeman), 
338. 

New England, Pilgrims and Puri- 
tans in, 11-20. 



Nev) England Magazine, 187, 240. 
New England Reformers, The (Em- 
erson), 169. 
New England Review, 240. 
New England Tragedies, The (Long- 
fellow), 227. 
New England's Memorial (Morton), 

15. 
New England's Plantation (Higgin- 

son), 19. 
New England's Prospect (Wood), 

19. 
New England's Trials (Smith), 12. 
New English Canaan (Morton), 20. 
New Era, The, 244. 
New Literature, The, 94. 
New York, leading literary centre, 

95; birthplace of Irving, 104; 

Bryant's editorial work, 138; 

later writers, 290-295; Whitman, 

298. 
New York Evening Post, 100, 138, 

140, 241. 
New York Gazette, The, 90. 
New York Mirror, 103, 208. 
New York Review, 101. 
New York Review and AthenoBum 

Magazine, 138. 
New York Sun, 153. 
New York Tribune, 154, 156, 182, 

291, 324. 
New York World, 324. 
Newbury, Mass., 44. 
Newell, Robert Henry, 306. 
Newport, R. I., 150. 
Newtown (Cambridge), 13. 
Nicholas Minturn (Holland), 294. 
Nicholson, Meredith, 350. 
Nick of the Woods (Bird), 302. 
NicoLAY, John G., 312. 
Nile Notes of a Howadji (Curtis), 

292. 
Nocturne (Aldrich), 322. 
No Gentlemen (Burnham), 339. 
Nominalist and Realist (Emerson). 

169. 
NoRRis, Frank, 353. 
North American Review, The, 97, 
101, 134, 158, 188, 205, 261, 

282. 
North Church in Boston, 28, 29, 

160. 
Northampton, Mass., 50. 
Norton, Charles Eliot, 261, 329. 
Norwich, Conn., 102. 
Notes on Virginia (Jefferson), 70. 
Novels, Cooper's, 127. 
November Boughs (Whitman), 301. 



INDEX 



375 



O Captain.' My Captain! (Whit- 
man), 300. 

O Fairest of the Rural Maids (Bry- 
ant), 136. 

Oak Openings, The (Cooper), 125. 

"Octave Thanet," 351. 

Octopus, The (Norris), 353. 

Ode for July 4th, 1876 (Lowell), 
263. 

Ode Recited at the Harvard Com- 
memoration (Lowell), 262. 

Ode Written in Time of Hesitation, 
An (Moody), 333. 

Odell, Jonathan, 71. 

Oglethorpe College, 316. 

O'Hara, Theodore, 313. 

Old Aunt Mary's (Riley), 331. 

Old Creole Days (Cable), 346. 

Old English Dramatists (Lowell), 
265. 

Old Fashioned Girl, An (Alcott), 
156. 

Old Ironsides (Holmes), 269, 276. 

Old Kaskaskia (Catherwood), 351. 

Old Manse, The (Hawthorne), 199. 

Old Mark Langston (Johnston), 
344. 

Old Oaken Bucket, The (Wood- 
worth), 102. 

Old Portraits and Modern Sketches 
(Whittier), 245. 

Old Regime (Parkman), 284. 

Old Salt Kossabone (Whitman), 
300. 

Old South Church in Boston, 16, 35, 
53. 

Old Sweetheart of Mine, An (Riley), 
331. 

Old Swimmin' Hole, The (Riley), 
331. 

Old Times in Middle Georgia 
(Johnston), 344. 

Oldtown Folks (Stowe), 306. 

Omoo (xMelville), 304. 

On a Bust of Dante (Patsons), 
310. 

On Board the '76 (Lowell), 262. 

On the Death of Drake (Halleek) , 99. 

On the Plantation (Harris), 344. 

On the Ruins of a Country Inn, 
(Freneau), 83. 

One Summer (Howard), 339. 

Orations and Addresses (Curtis), 
293. 

O'Reilly, John Boyle, 312. 

Ormond (Brown), 87. 

"Orpheus C. Kerr," 307. 

Orphic Sayings (Alcott), 155. 



Ossian, 297. 

Ossoli, Margaret Fuller (Higgin- 
son), 327. 

Ossoli, Marquis (see Fuller, Mar- 
garet), 156. 

Otis, James, 65. 

Otto the K7iight (French), 351. 

Our Hundred Days in Europe 
(Holmes), 274. 

Our Literature (Lowell), 265. 

Our Old Home (Hawthorne), 196. 

Outcasts of Poker Flat, The (Harte), 
309. 

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking 
(Whitman), 300. 

Outre-Mer (Longfellow), 221. 

Over-Soul, The (Emerson), 168. 

Over the Tea-Cups (Holmes), 274. 

Overland Monthly, The, 309. 

Page, Thomas Nelson, 345. 
Paine, Thomas, 68, 90. 
Palfrey, John Gorham, 286. 
Palinode (Lowell), 261. 
Pamela (Richardson), 85, 120. 
Pan (Peabody), 334. 
Pan in Wall Street (Stedman), 324. 
Panorama, The (Whittier), 244. 
Papers on Literature and Art (Ful- 
ler), 157. 
Paradise Lost (Milton), 41, 74. 
Parker, Theodore, 152. 
Parkman, Francis, 279, 283-285. 
Parnassus (Emerson), 173. 
Parson TurelVs Legacy (Holmes), 

272, 276. 
Parsons, Theophilus, 137. 
Parsons, Thomas William, 310. 
Parting Glass, The (Freneau), 83. 
Parting Hymn (Holmes), 276. 
Partizan, The (Simms), 303. 
Passe Rose (Hardy), 339. 
Past, The (Bryant), 139. 
Pastoral Letter, The (Whittier), 242. 
Pathfinder, The (Cooper), 125, 127. 
Patrolling Bamegat (Whitman), 

300. 
Paul Patoff (Crawford), 343. 
Paulding, James Kirk, 95, 97, 

98, 107, 138. 
Paunianok Picture, A (Whitman), 

300. 
Payne, John Howard, 102. 
Payne, Will, 352. 
Peabody, Josephine Preston, 

334. 
Pearce Amerson's Will (Johnston), 

344. 



376 



INDEX 



Pearl of Orr's Island, The (Stowe), 

306. 
Peck, Samuel Minturn, 332. 
Pembroke (Freeman), 338. 
Pencillings by the Way (Willis), 104. 
Penelope's English Experiences 

(Wiggin), 343. 
Pennsylvania Freeman, 242, 257. 
Pennsylvania Gazette, The, 56, 90. 
Pennsylvania Magazine, The, 90. 
Pennsylvania Packet and Daily 

Advertiser, The, 90. 
Pepys, Samuel, 45. 
Percival, James Gates, 102, 240. 
Periodicals, 89. 
Perry, Bliss, 328. 
Peter (Smith), 347. 
"Peter Parley," 187. 
"Petroleum V. Nasby," 307. 
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 337. 
Phi Beta Kappa Society, 136, 165, 

254, 270. 
Philadelphia, Pa. Early literary 

activity, 95; Whittier's editorial 

work, 242 ; later writers, 295. 
Philadelphia Mercury, The, 57. 
"Philenia," 85. 

Philip and His Wife (Deland), 338. 
Philip Nolan's Friends (Hale), 340. 
Phillips, Wendell, 154, 173, 289, 

293. 
Phillips Academy, Andover, 268; 

Exeter, 288. 
Philosophical Society of Philadel- 
phia, 57. 
Piatt, John James, 329, 335, 
Piatt, Sarah M.. 329. 
Picture of St. John, The (Taylor), 

291. 
Pictures in Song (Scollard), 333. 
Pierce, Franklin, 184, 193, 196. 
PiERPONT, John, 101. 
Pietro Ghisteri (Crawford), 343. 
Pike, Albert, 313. 
Pike County Ballads (Hay), 312. 
Pilgrim Fathers, The (Pierpont), 

102. 
Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan), 188, 

41. 
Pilgrims, The, 11. 
Pilot, The (Cooper), 97, 124, 128. 
Pink Marsh (Ade) , 350. 
Pioneer, The, 257. 
Pioneers, The (Cooper), 97, 124, 127. 
Pioneers of France in the New World 

(Parkman), 284. 
Pirate, The (Scott), 123. 
PU, The (Norris), 353. 



Place in literature, Hawthorne's, 
197; Thoreau's, 182; Whittier's, 
249. 

Plain Language from Truthful 
James (Harte), 309. 

Planting of the Apple Tree, The 
(Bryant), 144. 

Plutarch, 53. 

Plymouth colony, the, 12. 

PoE, Edgar Allan. School days, 
201 ; at the University of Virginia, 
202 ; Tamerlane and other poems, 
202; in the army, 202; at West 
Point, 204 ; poetry, 204 ; romantic 
tales, 204; editorial work, 205; 
marriage, 205; The Narrative 
of Arthur Gordon Pym, 206 ; Tales 
of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 
206; critical reviews, 206; the 
analytical tales, 206; The Mur- 
ders of the Rue Morgue, 206; 
The Mystery of Marie Roget, 
207; The Goldbug, 207; editorial 
work, 207; The Raven, 208; Tales 
republished , 208 ; death of his wife, 
208; Eureka, 209; Poems, 209; 
death, 209; Poe as a critic, 210; 
as a romancer, 211; as a poet, 
213; mentioned, 83, 88, 103, 136, 
198, 200, 230, 241, 249, 256, 257, 
265, 277, 302, 303, 313, 315. 

Poems (Gilder), 329. 

Poems (Hay), 312. 

Poems (Hayne), 315. 

Poems (Holmes), 270. 

Poems (LoweU), 257. 

Poems (Moody), 334. 

Poems (Mrs. Piatt), 329. 

Poems (Poe), 204. 

Poems, Lyric and Idyllic (Stedman), 
324. 

Poems of Passion (Wilcox), 332. 

Poems of the Orient (Taylor), 291. 

Poems of Two Friends (Piatt and 
Howells), 329, 335. 

Poems on Slavery (Longfellow), 242. 

Poet, The (Emerson), 169. 

Poet at the Breakfast Table, The 
(Holmes), 272. 

Poetic Principle, The (Poe), 210. 

Poetry of the Revolution, 71. 

Poetry, Bryant's, 143, 145; Emer- 
son's, 175 ; Holmes's, 276 ; Long- 
fellow's, 229, 230, 231 ; Lowell's, 
265; Poe's, 204, 213; Whitman's. 
299; Lowell's lectures on, 261; 
defined by Poe, 214; Stedman 's 
definition of, 324. 



INDEX 



377 



Poetry (Holmes), 270. 

Poets of America (Stedman), 324. 

Poets and Poetry of Europe, The 
(Longfellow), 223. 

Political Addresses (Lowell), 265. 

Political satires and ballads, 71. 

Politics (Emerson), 169. 

"Poor Richard," 58. 

Pope, Alexander, 8, 72, 75. 

Port of Missing Men (Nicholson), 
350. 

Portland, Me., 103, 217, 261, 306; 
birthplace of Longfellow, 217. 

Portsmouth, N. H., 321. 

Potiphar Papers, The (Curtis). 292. 

Power of Sympathy, The (Morton), 
85. 

Prairie, The (Cooper), 124, 126, 127. 

Precaution (Cooper), 122. 

Prentice, George D., 240. 

Prescott, William Hickling, 
114, 279, 280-281, 282. 

Present Crisis, The (Lowell), 258. 

Pride of the Village, The (Irving), 
111. 

Primes and Their Neighbors, The 
(Johnston), 344. 

Prince and the Pauper, The (Clem- 
ens), 308. 

Prince of India, The (Wallace), 349. 

Princess Casamassima, The (James) , 
337 

Princeton College, 50, 71, 81. 

Printing-press, the first in America, 
13. 

Printing-presses, forbidden in Vir- 
ginia, 10. 

Priscilla's Love Story (Spofford), 
339. 

Prisoners of Hope (Johnston), 348. 

Private Life and Other Stories, The 
(James), 337. 

Problem, The (Emerson), 170. 

Proctor, Edna Dean, 330. 

Professor at the Breakfast Table, 
The (Holmes), 272. 

Progress to the Mines, A (Byrd), 
48. 

Prometheus (Percival), 102. 

Prophet of the Great Smoky Moun- 
tain, The (Murfree), 345. 

Prophetic Pictures, The (Haw- 
thorne), 188. 

Prose works, Whittier's, 244. 

Protectorate, Cromwell's, 9. 

Providence, R. I., 25, 292. 

Prudence (Emerson), 168. 

Prudence Palfrey (Aldrich), 323. 



Prue and I (Curtis), 293. 

Psalm of Life, .* (Longfellow), 222, 
223, 231. 

Psalm of the West (Lanier), 320. 

Public instruction in the colonies, 13. 

" Pubhus," 69. 

Puck, 332. 

Pudd'n head Wilson (Clemens), 308. 

Puritan colonies in New England, 
12. 

Puritan doctrines, decline of, 31. 

Puritan Poetry in New England, 
32-42. 

Puritan Protectorate, 9. 

Puritan types, in England and in 
America, 41 „ 

Puritanism, aspirations of, 39 ; aus- 
terity of, 21. 

Purloined Letter, The (Poe), 212. 

Quarles, Francis, 36. 

Queechy (Warner) , 304. 

Queen of Sheba, The (Aldrich), 323. 

Quick or the Dead, The (Rives), 347. 

Quincy, Josiah, 68. 

Radcliffe, Mrs., 89. 

Rainy Day, The (Longfellow), 223,. 
231. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 1, 36. 

Ramona (Jackson), 312. 

Randall, James Ryder, 313. 

Randolph of Roanoke (Whittier), 
242. 

Rappaccini's Daughter (Haw- 
thorne), 198. 

Rationale of English Verse (Poe),. 
210. 

Raven, The (Poe), 103, 208, 209, 
210, 214. 

Read, Thomas Buchanan, 295. 

Reaper and the Flowers, The (Long- 
fellow), 222. 

Rebecca (Wiggin), 343. 

Rebels, The (Child), 304. 

Recollections (Stoddard), 295. 

Red Badge of Courage, The (Crane), 
344. 

Red City, The (Mitchell). 341. 

Red Rock (Page), 345. 

Red Rover, The (Cooper), 124, 128. 

Redskins, The (Cooper), 125. 

Reflections on the French Revolution 
(Burke), 69. 

Reign of Law, The (Allen), 345. 

Religious liberty in New England, 
25. 

Reply to Hayne (Webster), 288. 



378 



INDEX 



Repplier, Agnes, 328. 
Representative Men (Emerson), 169. 
Resignation (Longfellow), 231. 
Revenge of Hamish, The (Lanier), 

318, 320. 
Reveries of a Bachelor (Mitchell), 

294. 
Kevolutionary Songs and Ballads, 

75. 
Rhode Island, 13. 
Rhodora, The (Emerson), 171. 
Rhcecus (Lowell), 257. 
Rhythm, Lanier's theory of, 318. 
Richard Carvel (Churchill), 348. 
Richardson, Charles F., 329. 
Richardson, Samuel, 85, 119, 120. 
Richmond, Va., 200. 
Right Princess, The (Burnham), 

339. 
Rights. of Man, The (Paine), 69. 
Rights of the British Colonies, The 

(Otis), 66. 
Riley, James Whitcomb, 331. 
Rill from the Town Pump, A (Haw- 
thorne), 188, 199. 
Rip Van Winkle (Irving), 110. 111. 
Ripley, George, 152, 153, 154. 
Rise of Silas Lapham, The (Howells), 

336. 
Rise of the Dutch Republic, The 

(Motley), 282. 
River's Children, The (Stuart), 346. 
Rives, Amelie, 347. 
Rivulet, The (Bryant), 138. 
Rizpah (Bryant), 138. 
Roba di Roma (Story), 310. 
Robert of Lincoln (Bryant), 144. 
Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep 

(Willard), 102. 
Roger Marvin's Burial (Hawthorne), 

198. 
Rogers, John, 38. 
RoLFE, William James, 327, 
Rollo books. The, 341. 
Roman Singer, A (Crawford), 343. 
Romance of an Old-Fashioned Gen- 
tleman, The (Smith), 347. 
Romanes of Dollard, The (Cather- 

wood), 351. 
Romantic school of fiction, 88. 
Romantic tales, Foe's, 204, 211, 

212. 
Rose in Bloom (Alcott), 156. 
Rose of Dutcher's Coolly (Garland), 

352. 
Roughing It (Clemens), 308. 
Roxbury, Mass., 27, 33. 
Roxy (Eggleston), 349. 



Royal American Magazine, The, 90. 
Boyal Society of Literature, 64, 

113. 
Rudder Grange (Stockton), 341. 
Rural Funerals (Irving), 111. 
Russell s Magazine, 315. 

Sacred Poems (Willis), 104. 

Salem, Mass., birthplace of Haw- 
thorne, 183. 

Salem Gazette, 187, 

Salmagundi Papers, 97. 98. 

Sandalphon (Longfellow), 231. 

Sands at Seventy (Whitman), 301. 

Sandys, George, 8. 

Sappho and Phaon (MacKaye), 
334. 

Saracinesca (Crawford), 343. 

Sartor Resartus (Carlyle), 161. 

Satanstoe (Cooper), 125. 

Satirist, Lowell as, 258. 

Saturday Club, The, 273. 

Saxe, John Godfrey, 307. 

Saxon element in Bryant's verse, 
145. 

Scarlet Letter, The (Hawthorne), 191, 
192, 19S. 

Schools in Virginia, 10. 

Science of English Verse, The 
(Lanier), 318. 

Scollard, Clinton, 332. 

Scott, Sir Walter, 88, 97, 109, 
110, 119, 123, 237, 297. 

Scribner's Magazine, 294, 329. 

ScuDDER, Horace E.. 326. 

Seabury, Samuel, 67. 

Sea Lions, The (Cooper). 125. 

Sea Mark, A (Carman). 333. 

Seaside and the Fireside, The 
(Longfellow), 224. 

Sebago Lake, Me., 183. 

Second Book of Verse, A (Field), 
331. 

Second Church in Boston, 160. 

Sedgwick, Catherine M., 304. 

Self Reliance (Emerson), 168. 

Selling of Joseph. The (Sewall), 44. 

Separatists, The, 11. 

Septimius Felton (Hawthorne), 197, 

Seven Oaks (Holland), 294. 

Seventeenth Century, literary at- 
tainment of. 41. 

Sewall, Samuel, 44. 

Shakespeare (Longfellow), 232. 

Shakespeare 's Tempest, and Strach- 
ey's narrative, 7. 

Shakespeare, plays of, 2, 84, 238, 
290, 297, 327. 



INDEX 



379 



Shaw, Henry W., 307. 

She Came and Went (Lowell), 260. 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 88, 97, 

103, 204. 
Shepard, Thomas, 23. 
Shepherd of King Admetus, The, 

257. 
Sheridan's Ride (Read), 295. 
Sherman, Frank Dempster, 332. 
Shillaber, Benjamin P., 307. 
Short stories, Hawthorne's, 198; 

Poe's, 212. 
Short story, earliest examples of, 

111. 
Shuttle, The (Burnett), 346. 
Sidney, Sir Philip, 2. 
Significance of early colonial chron- 
icles, 18. 
Significance of Mather's Magnalia, 

31. 
Signs and Seasons (Burroughs), 

328. 
Sigourney, Lydia Huntley, 102, 

240. 
"Silence Dogood," 57. 
Sill, Edward Rowland, 312. 
SiMMS, William Gilmore, 303, 

313-315. 
Simple Cobler of Aggawam, The 

(Ward), 24. 
Simplicity, Longfellow's, 22.9. 
Singular Life, A (Ward), 338. 
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry 

God (Edwards), 50. 
Sir Mortimer (Johnston), 
Sir Rohan's Ghost (Spofford), 339. 
Sisters' Tragedy, The (Aldrich), 

323. 
Skeleton in Armor, The (Longfel- 
low), 223, 231. 
Sketch-Book (Irving), 97, 101, 106, 

110, 218. 
Sketch-Book compared with the 

Spectator esssiys, 116. 
Skipper Ireson's Ride (Whittier), 

244. 
Slavery, first published argument 

against, 44. 
Slave-Ships, The (Whittier), 242. 
Smith, Francis Hopkinson, 347. 
Smith, John, 3. 
Smith, Samuel F., 103. 
Smith, Seba, 306. 
Smith, Sidney, 98. 
Snow-Bound (Whittier), 236, 238, 

246. 
Snow-Image, The (Hawthorne), 198. 
Snow-storm, The (Emerson), 171. 



Social Silhouettes (Fawcett), 342. 

Society and Solitude (Emerson), 173. 

Soldiers of Fortune (Davis), 344. 

Song of Hiawatha, The (Longfellow), 
224. 

Song of Marion's Men (Bryant), 
139. 

Song of Myself (Whitman), 298. 

Song of Pitcairns Island, A (Bry- 
ant), 138. 

Song of the Chattahoochee (Lanier), 
320. 

Song of the Silent Land, The (Long- 
fellow), 232. 

Song of the Vermonters (Whittier), 
240. 

Song "The Hunter of the West" 
(Bryant), 137. 

Song to Ligeia (Poe), 214. 

Songs from Dixie Land (Stanton), 
332. 

•Song's from Vagabondia (Carman 
and Hovey), 333. 

Songs in Many Keys (Holmes), 276. 

Songs of Labor (Whittier), 244. 

Songs of Many Seasons (Holmes), 
276. 

Songs of the Sierras (Miller), 330. 

Songs of the Soil (Stanton), 332. 

Sonny (Stuart), 346. 

Sons and Daughters (Kirk), 339. 

Sot Weed Factor (Cook), 48. 

Soundings from the Atlantic 
(Holmes), 272. 

South Carolinian, The, 314. 

Southern Flight, A (Sherman and 
Scollard), 332. 

Soxdhern Literary Messenger, 205. 

Southern story-tellers, 344. 

SouTHEY, Robert, 97, 132. 

Spanish Student, The (Longfellow), 
223, 232. 

Sparks, Jared, 286. 

Specimen Days and Collect (Whit- 
man), 301 

Spectator, The, 54, 106, 110, 116. 

Spenser, Edmund, 2, 188. 

Sphinx, The (Emerson), 170, 171. 

Spiritual Laws (Emerson), 168. 

Spofford, Harriet Prescott, 311, 
339. 

Spoil of Office, A (Garland), 

Springfield Republican, 293. 

Spy, The (Cooper), 97, 122. 

Stamp Act, The, 66. 

Standish of Standish (Austin), 339. 

Stanton, Frank Libby, 332. 

Stanzas on Freedom (Lowell), 258. 



380 



INDEX 



Star of Bethlehem, The (Whittier), 
241. 

Star Spangled Banner, The (Key), 
103. 

Stars of the Summer Night (Long- 
fellow), 231. 

Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 170, 
321, 323-325. 

Steele, Richard, 31, 107. 

Sterne, Laurence, 85. 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 212. 

Stillwater Tragedy, The (Aldrich), 
323. 

Stimson, Frederic J., 340. 

Stirrup-Cup, TM (Lanier), 319, 
320. 

Stith, William, 48. 

Stockton, Francis R., 341. 

Stoddard, Elizabeth B., 295. 

Stoddard, Richard Henry, 295, 
321, 324. 

Stories of a Western Town (French), 
351. 

Stories of Georgia (Harris), 344. 

Story, William Wetmore, 194, 
310. 

Story of a Bad Boy, The (Aldrich), 
321. 

Story of Aaron, The (Harris), 344. 

Story of Avis, The (Ward), 338. 

Story of Babette, The (Stuart), 346. 

Story of Eva, The (Payne), 352. 

Story of Kennett, The (Taylor), 291. 

Story of Margaret Kent, The (Kirk), 
339. 

Story of Patsy, The (Wiggin), 343. 

Story of Thyrza, The (Brown), 338. 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 150, 
248, 305. 

Strachey, William, 6 

Stranger in Lowell, The (Whittier), 
244. 

Stuart, Moses, 150. 

Stuart, Ruth McEnery, 346. 

Suggestions for Reading. Early 
colonial period, 42; the Eight- 
eenth Century, 91; Irving, 117; 
Cooper, 128; Bryant, 146; Emer- 
son, 176; Hawthorne, 199; Poe, 
215; Longfellow, 233; Whittier, 
250; Lowell, 266. See also 
Biographical and critical authori- 
ties . 

Summer by the Lakeside (Whittier), 
244. 

Summer Wind (Bryant), 138. 

Sumner, Charles, 258, 289. 

Sun-Day Hymn, A (Holmes), 276. 



Sunrise (Lanier), 319, 320. 

Sunthin' in the Pastoral Line (Low- 
ell), 262. 

Supernaturalism of New England, 
The (Whittier), 245. 

Supply at St. Agatha's, The (Ward), 
338. 

Swift, Jonathan, 31, 109. 

Swingin' round the Cirkle (Locke), 
307. 

Sydney (Deland), 338. 

Symbolism in Hawthorne's stories, 
188. 

Symphony, The (Lanier), 318, 320. 

Tabb, John Banister, 330. 
Tale of a Lonely Parish, A (Craw- 
ford), 343. 
Tales of a Traveller (Irving), 97. 
Tales of a Wayside Inn (Longfellow), 

226, 231, 246. 
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque 

(Poe), 206. 
Tales of the Home Folks (Harris), 

344. 
Tales of Time and Place (King), 

346. 
Taliesin (Hovey), 333. 
Talisman, The, 139. 
Tallahassee Girl, A (Thompson), 

349. 
Tamerlane and other poems (Poe), 

202, 204. 
Tampa Robins (Lanier), 320. 
Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne), 193. 
Tarkington, Newton Booth, 

349. 
Taller, The, 106. 
Taylor, Bayard, 246, 290-292, 

295, 318, 321, 324. 
Technique, Bryant's, 145. 
Telling the Bees (Whittier), 244. 
Tell-Tale Heart, The (Poe), 212. 
Temple House (Stoddard), 295. 
Tennessee's Partner (Harte), 309. 
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 211, 

260. 
"Tenth Muse," The, 35. 
Terminations (James), 337. 
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 

119. 
Thanatopsis (Bryant), 97. 132, 134, 

137, 144. 
That Lass a' Lowrie's (Burnett). 

346. 
Thaxter, Celia Laighton, 247, 

311. 
Theatres, 84. 



INDEX 



381 



Their Wedding Journey (Howells), 
336. 

Theocritus, 313. 

Theology, Emerson's, 160. 

Theology explained and defined 
(Dwight), 75. 

Theology in New England, 20. 

Theory of rhythm, Lanier's, 318. 

Thomas, Edith M., 330. 

Thomas, Theodore, 317. 

Thompson, Ernest Seton, 328. 

Thompson, Maurice, 312, 349. 

Thomson, James, 75, 132. 

Thoreau, Henry D., 177; the nat- 
uralist, 179; Walden, 180; A 
Week on the Concord and Merri- 
mack Rivers, 180; journal, 181; 
essays and excursions, 182 ; pre- 
sent place in literature, 182; 
authorities, 182; mentioned, 152, 
175, 191, 328. 

Thou art the Alan (Poe), 212. 

Thoughts for the Discouraged Farm- 
er, (Riley), 331. 

Three Memorial Poems (Lowell), 
263. 

Threnody (Emerson), 172. 

Through One Administration (Bur- 
nett), 346. 

Through Winding Ways (Kirli), 339. 

TiCKNOR, George, 196, 221. 

Tides ofBarnegat, The (Smith), 347. 

"Timothy Titcomb," 293. 

Timothy Titcomb's Letters (Hol- 
land), 294. 

TiMROD, Henry, 313, 314. 

Tintern Abbey (Wordsworth), 143. 

Tiverton Tales (Brown), 338. 

To a Cloud (Bryant), 138. 

To a Honeybee (Freneau), 82. 

To a Waterfowl (Bryant), 97, 133, 
137. 

To Faneuil Hall (Whittier), 242. 

To Have and to Hold (Johnston), 
348. 

To Helen (Poe), 204, 214. 

To the Fringed Gentian (Bryant), 
139, 144. 

To the Man-of-War Bird (Whit- 
man), 300. 

To the Mocking-Bird (Pike), 313. 

Together (Her rick), 353. 

Told by Uncle Remus (Harris), 345. 

Tom Grogan (Smith), 347. 

Tom Sawyer (Clemens), 308. 

ToRREY, Bradford, 328. 

Tortesa the Usurer (Willis), 104. 

TouRGEE, Albion W., 347. 



Tour of the Prairies (Irving), 113. 
Tragic Muse, The (James), 337. 
Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The 

(Fox), 345. 
Tramp Abroad, A (Clemens), 308. 
Transcendentalism, 151. 
Transformation (Hawthorne), 194. 
Translation of a Fragment of 

Simonides (Bryant), 137. 
Translation of the Iliad (Bryant), 

141. 
Translation of the Odyssey (Bryant), 

141. 
Translation of Ovid (Sandys), 8. 
Translations by Longfellow, 232. 
Travels in New England and New 

York (Dwight), 75. 
Tristram Shandy (Sterne), 85. 
Trowbridge, John T., 340. 
True Relation, The (Smith), 4. 
Trumbull, John, 73. 
Twice-Told Tales (Hawthorne), 187, 

188, 189, 190, 206. 
Two Admirals, The (Cooper), 125, 

128. 
Two Little Confederates (Page), 345. 
Two Men (Stoddard), 295. 
Two Vanrevels, The (Tarkington), 

349. 
Two Years before the Mast (Dana), 

101. 
Tyler, Moses Coit, 328. 
Typee, (Melville), 304. 

Ulalume (Poe), 209, 214. 
Ultima Thulc (Longfellow), 227. 
Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit 

(Harris), 345. 
Uncle Remus — His Songs and His 

Sayings (Harris), 345. 
Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stowe), 305, 

349. 
Under the Old Elm (Lowell), 263. 
Under the Willows (Lowell), 263. 
Undercurrent, The (Grant), 340. 
Unguarded Gates (Aldrich), 323. 
Union and Liberty (Holmes), 276. 
Unitarian Movement, The, 150. 
United States Literary Gazette, 137, 

220. 
United States Magazine, The, 90, 256. 
University of Georgia, 314. 
University of Pennsylvania, 57. 
University of Virginia, founded, 

70; Poe, 202. 
Unleavened Bread (Grant), 340. 

Valley of Unrest, The (Poe), 204. 



382 



INDEX 



Van Dyke, Henry, 328, 334, 

Vaudois Teacher. The (Whittier). 
240. 

Venetian Life (Howells). 335. 

Verne, Jules, 212. 

Verse form. Whitman's, 299. 

Victorian Anthology, A (Stedman), 
325. 

Victorian Poets (Stedman), 324. 

Views Afoot (Taylor), 291. 

Vignettes of Manhattan (Matthews). 
342. 

Village Blacksmith, The (Longfel- 
low), 223, 231. 

Virginia, settlement, and develop- 
ment of, 3-9. 

Virginia Comedians, The (Cooke), 
303. 

Virginian, The (Wister), 343. 

Vision of Columbus (Barlow), 73. 

Vision of Poesie, A (Timrod), 314. 

Vision of Sir Launfal, The (Lowell), 
260, 262. 

Voiceless, The (Holmes), 272. 

Voices of Freedom (Whittier), 242. 

Voices of the Night (Longfellow), 
222. 

Voluntaries (Emerson), 171. 

Volunteer Boys, The, 75, 

Voyage of the Good Ship Union 
(Holmes), 276. 

Waiting (Whittier), 245. 

Wake Robin (Burroughs), 328. 

Wakefield (Hawthorne), 188, 198. 

Walden (Thoreau), 180, 182. 

Walden Pond, 179. 

Wallace, Lew, 349. 

Walton, Izaak, 265. 

Wanted — A Man (Stedman), 324. 

Ward, Mrs. E. S. P., 337. 

Ware, William, 304. 

Warner, Charles Dudley, 294- 

295. 
Warner, Susan, 304. 
Warren, Joseph, 67. 
Warren's Address (Pierpont), 102. 
Washers of the Shroud, The (Lowell), 

262. 
Washington, George, 71. 
Washington (Sparks), 286. 
Watchers, The (Whittier), 245. 
Water-Witch, The (Cooper), 124, 

128. 
Wayfarers, The (Peabody), 334. 
Ways of Nature (Burroughs), 328. 
Ways of the Hour, The (Cooper), 125. 
We Girls (Whitney), 341. 



Web of Life, T.e (Herrick), 353. 

Webster, Daniel, 115, 127, 157, 
244,,2Sa, 315. 

Welde, Thomas, 33. 

Wendell, Barrett, 329. 

Wendell Phillips (Lowell), 258. 

Wept of Wi^h-ton-Wi^h, The 
(Cooper), 124. 

West Church in Boston, 253. 

West Newton, Mass., 193. 

West Roxbury, Mass., 153. 

"Westchester Farmer," 67. 

Westminster Abbey (Irving), 111. 

Westminster Abbey (Stedman), 323. 

Westover, Va., 47. 

Westward Ho! (Paulding), 99. 

Wet Days at Edgewood (Mitchell), 
294. 

Wharton, Mrs. Edith, 343. 

What Maisie Knew (James), 337. 

Wheatley, Phillis, 83. 

Wheel of Life, The (Glasgow), 348. 

When Knighthood was in Flower 
(Major), 350. 

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard 
Bloom'd (Whitman), 300. 

Wheji the Frost is on the Punkin 
(Riley). 331. 

When the Sultan goes to Ispahan 
(Aldrich), 322. 

Whicher, Frances, 307. 

Whipple, Edwin Percy, 326. 

Whistle, The (Franklin), 62. 

White, Kirke, 132. 

White, Maria, 256. 

White Islander, The (Catherwood), 
351. 

White, Richard Grant, 327. 

White Mice, The (Davis), 344. 

White Old Maid, The (Hawthorne), 
198. 

Whitfield, George. 51. 

W^HiTMAN, Walt. Early life. 296. 
297; Leaves of Grass. 297; his 
verse form, 299; war record. 299; 
Drum Taps. 299; his strength, 
300; death. 301; influence, 302; 
references, 302; mentioned, 176. 

Whitman, Walt (Burroughs). 328. 

Whitney, Mrs. A. D. T., 341. 

Whittier, John Greenleaf. 
Youth, 236; The Barefoot Boy, 
236; Snow-Bound, 236; early 
compositions, 238; education. 
239 ; as a journalist, 239 ; in Hart- 
ford. 249; first book, 240; early 
poems, 241 ; the abolitionist, 242; 
Voices of Freedom, 242 ; politics 



INDEX 



383 



and journalistic 243; Ichabod, 
244; Mogg Megone, 244; Lays 
of My Home , 244 ; Songs of Labor, 
244; The Chapel of the Hermits 
and Other Poems, 244; The 
Panorama, and Other Poems, 244 ; 
Home Ballads, 244; prose works, 
244 ; In War Time, 245 ; National 
Lyrics, 245; Snow-Bound, 246; 
The Tent on the Beach, 246; 
latter years, 247 ; personal traits, 
247; death, 249; place in litera- 
ture, 249 ; suggestions for reading, 
250; authorities, 252; mentioned, 
71, 149, 154, 223, 257, 258, 277, 
311. 

Whittier, John Greenleaf (Higgin- 
son), 327. 

Wide, Wide World, The (Warner), 
304. 

"Widow Bedott," 307. 

Wieland (Brown), 87, 88. 

WiGGiN, Kate Douglas, 343 

WiGGLESWORTH, MiCHAEL, 39. 

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler, 332. 
Wild Honeysuckle, The (Freneau), 

82.- 
WiLKiNS, Mary E., 338. 
WiLLARD, Emma H., 102. 
William and Mary College, 48. 
William Wilson (Poe), 201, 211, 

212. 
Williams, Roger, 25, 150. 
Williams College; Bryant, 130. 
Williamsburg, Va., 84. 
Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 103, 

138, 208, 321, 322. 
Wind of Destiny (Hardy), 340. 
Wing-and-Wing (Cooper), 125, 128. 
WiNSLow, Edward, 14. 
Winter, William, 327. 
Winter Piece, A (Bryant), 97, 143. 
Winter Sunshine (Burroughs), 328. 
Winthrop, John, 16, 183. 
Wise Woman, The (Burnham), 339. 
Wister, Owen, 343. 
Witchcraft in Salem, 29, 183, 186. 
With Husky Haughty Lips O Sea 

(Whitman), 300. 
With Reed and Lyre (Scollard), 333. 
With the Procession (Fuller), 352. 
With Trumpet and Drum (Field), 

331. 



Wither, George, 36. 

Wolf, The (No.ris), 353. 

Wolfert Webber (Irving), 111. 

Wolfert's Roost (Irving), 115. 

Woman in the Nineteenth Century 
(Fuller), 157. 

Wonder Book (Hawthorne), 193. 

Wonder Working Providence (John- 
son), 21. 

Wonderful One-Hoss Shay, The 
(Holmes), 272. 

Wonders of the Invisible World 
(Mather), 29. 

Woodberry, George E., 325, 328, 
334. 

Woodman, spare that tree (Morris), 
102. 

Woodnotes (Emerson), 170, 171. 

Woods, Leonard, 150. 

Woodwort'h, Samuel, 102. 

Woolman, John, 71, 237. 

Woolson, Constance Fenimore, 
350. 

Word of Congress, The (Odell), 72. 

Wordsworth, William, 83, 97, 
132, 143, 161, 231, 314. 

Wreck of the Hesperus, The (Long- 
fellow), 223, 231. 

Writs of Assistance, 66. 

Wyandotte (Cooper), 125. 

Wyndham Towers (Aldrich), 322. 

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (Field), 
331. 

Ximena (Taylor), 291. 

Yale College; Cooper, 120. 

Yankee Doodle, 79. 

Yankee Man of War, The, 77. 

Yankee's Return from Camp, The, 
79. 

Year's Life, A (Lowell), 256. 

Yellow Violet, The (Bryant), 97. 

Yesterdays with Authors (Fields), 
327. 

Young Goodman Brown (Haw- 
thorne), 198. 

Zenobia (Ware), 304. 

Zenobia, in Hawthorne's Blithedale 

Romance, 156. 
Zoroaster (Crawford), 343. 



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